


cake and coffee

by orphan_account



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Light Is Not Kira, Autospies, Cats, Forensic Pathologist Light, M/M, Murder Mystery, Plot, Roommates, Slow Burn, University Student Light, only a little bit thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23202589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Light is a coffee shop employee working for his forensic pathology degree and he finds himself pulled deeply into a case when his most annoying customer reveals himself to be the world famous detective L.
Relationships: Amane Misa & Yagami Light, Amane Misa/Original Female Character(s), L & Yagami Light, L/Yagami Light, Yagami Light & Original Character(s), Yagami Light & Yagami Sayu
Comments: 36
Kudos: 369





	1. subtle changes.

**Author's Note:**

> so before we get into this i just want to say that there are parts where theres like autopsy type stuff and let me tell you... i am just pulling shit out of my ass and we should all just pretend that it makes sense if it doesnt

**chapter one. subtle changes.**

It’s cold outside - colder than mid January usually is, which is saying something, because it usually gets quite cold. Light is bundled up in a soft jacket -a present from his mother- and a coat that’s slightly more worse for wear than he would like. He has his hands tucked into his pockets, wishing he had thought to bring gloves with him on this little stroll around the university neighborhood.

It’s one of the better university neighborhoods, but it’s still student housing, so the apartments are all small and perfectly uniform beige blocks. Walking among the neighborhood is exceptionally boring with nothing for the eyes to latch on to or find interest in, even the plant life is minimal and disappointing at best.

It’s a shame, really, but Light will take this boring, _boring_ walk over having to deal with his roommate and her horrible girlfriend.

Seiko Momonoe is usually a decent person, a bit odd and annoying, but decent. That changes when Misa Amane enters the picture as she immediately turns into the most insufferable lovey-dovey person Light has ever met and that’s _including_ Misa, who he, quite coincidentally, had had the displeasure of dating in his senior year of high school.

They’re, quite honestly, disgusting together.

A short gust of wind cuts into Light’s exposed skin and he burrows his face as deep as he can into the high neck of his coat. He exhales in frustration and a cloud of white breath appears and then dissipates before he’s even able to walk through it.

Light does not consider himself paranoid, but this night, there seems to be something off. Like something or someone is following him. Maybe it’s all the news about that assailant going around leaving people half dead in the middle of the night. His mother did always say all this morbid news would start getting to him sooner or later.

He shoots a discrete glance over his shoulder. Nothing but sidewalk, road and large, beige apartment blocks. He sets his gaze firmly ahead of him. He’s being ridiculous - stupid, even.

And then he hears something that sounds suspiciously like someone rattling along the alley between two buildings. 

Light stops in his tracks.

He hears nothing.

He starts walking again.

And he hears it again.

Light stops again and looks towards the noise.

There’s a strained, high pitched meow and a _thud!_ and he lets out a sigh of relief. It’s just a cat.

He walks towards the continued sound of mewling and finds a small, brown cat squirming in an open trash can. Why the top has been removed and is nowhere to be seen in the first place is beyond Light, but the trash can seems clean enough -mostly empty and mostly consisting of crumpled papers- so he reaches in and picks up the cat.

It continues to squirm in his grip and nips at his hand as he tries to untangle it from the cord it’s gotten tied up in.

Light sets the cat down, tells it to be careful in a tone that’s probably too stern to be using on a cat, and resumes his walk.

He checks his watch - it should probably be safe to start looping back to the apartment now, either Seiko has gone out with Misa, or they’ve both retreated to Seiko’s room to watch those shitty romcoms they both like to watch for some reason. 

The cat follows him.

He stops outside his door and glares at the little brown ball of fur. It stares back up at him, eyes wide and pleading.

Light sighs and brings a hand to his forehead. He must be going soft if he’s about to let a cat into his no-pets-allowed apartment. But it’s extremely cold out and it just feels wrong to leave it out to fend for itself. It’s so small and doesn’t even have a collar. He reasons with himself that it’s probably for the best if he just lets the cat in until it warms up or he finds either it’s owner or someone to take it.

“Light’s back!”

Misa’s voice trails through the apartment in a high pitched trill. She prances her way out of the little kitchen area and stands in front of Light, hands clasped behind her back as she lean forwards.

“Light,” she says in an exaggeratedly simpering voice, “will you help me make some milkshakes for me and Seichi? She’s picking out a movie and we need refreshments!”

Light sighs and Misa lets out a loud squeal. It seems that she has just noticed the cat.

“Oh my god! Seichi, come out here!”

Seiko sticks her head of bright blue -done originally to help with one of her classmate’s projects and then just ended up sticking around- out of her door. “What is it?” she asks curiously.

The door is closed now and Misa is crouching with her arms outstretched in the hopes of the cat coming to her. It does and she happily swipes it up into her arms and jumps up to her feet. “Cat!” she declares.

Seiko immediately bolts from her room to join her girlfriend in fawning over the little creature. Light can’t help rolling his eyes. He may have been the one to let the animal in, but at least he wasn’t cooing over it like some sort of squealing preteen.

Light retreats to his room. At least the chances of them bothering him for the rest of the night are almost zero, even if they’re loud, which they are, he’ll still be able to do some homework.

\----

Light isn’t entirely sure why he’s in the position he’s in and he has no idea how he’s supposed to feel about it.

Seiko and Misa are holding the cat, now named Kuroko, between them with the most pleading, puppy-dog eyes they can manage. Lips drawn into pouts and eyebrows drawn to complete the picture of two adult women begging a slightly younger man to _please_ let them keep the kitten in their arms.

“Animals aren’t allowed in the apartments,” he responds flatly.

“You’re the one who brought him here, idiot,” Seiko says, abandoning her pout for a slightly more typical sneer. It’s a good natured sneer, which is odd. Light has never before met someone who can _sneer_ and make it seem friendly. He’s also never before met someone who called him an idiot so frequently.

“Oh, be nice, Seichi,” Misa says as she shifts her hold on Kuroko. “So can we keep him, Light?”

Light sighs. “Misa, can’t you keep him at _your_ house?”

“I don’t spend enough time there! Kuroki is a growing kitty who needs lots of love and attention!”

“And what if we get kicked out for having an animal?” he demands.

“Then you can both come live with me, there’s plenty of room. And Kuroki would love it, _wouldn’t you Kuroki_?” She lifts the cat up with both hands and childishly rubs her nose against his.

“Come on, Light,” Seiko says. “He’s so cute and little, we can’t just let him go back to fending for himself on the harsh streets of Tokyo. Besides, I’ve heard that there’s a cat killer out and about. He’s going around killing defenseless cats.”

“Seiko, you’re not a good liar.”

“Not true! I frequently fool people who don’t have a lie detector programmed into their functioning.”

“Are you implying that I’m a robot now? Because I don’t think we should keep a cat in our apartment that doesn’t allow cats?”

“I have a lot of reasons for thinking you might be a robot,” she replies seriously.

Light pinches the bridge of his nose, then removes his hand and checks his watch. “I have class. We’re not keeping that cat.”

Seiko and Misa in unison, in a very mature manner, stick their tongues out at him as he grabs his bag and heads for the door.

\---

Light has work after his classes, so he makes his way to the Moon Cafe, hoping that business will be slow so he can get started on his physiology paper. He knows, however, that the hours just after most classes end is a very busy time and he will likely be forced to run around grabbing confectioneries and making coffees.

As it turns out, he’s absolutely right and is even visited by his _favourite_ customer, one of the banes of his existence, the so called _Hideki Ryuga_. No, not the famous pop star turned actor, but a strange, slouching man who, for some unknown reason, insists on using an obviously fake name.

‘Hideki Ryuga’ insists on ordering half the entire stock of cakes, cookies and brownies _every single day_ as well as a coffee with twenty-two sugars and three creams. He’s mostly inoffensive other than that as he just sits at an otherwise unoccupied table and works on his laptop like any other customer but Light seems to always notice something new about him to be irritated by.

Today, it’s the fact that he _doesn’t wear fucking socks_.

Usually, this is not something Light would be able to notice, but today, amidst all the bustling about, he sees that Ryuga’s heel is popping out of his shoe from the ridiculous way the man sits - his feet up on the chair, knees hugging his chest. Light used to try to get him to keep his feet off the cafe furniture, but that was only met upon deaf ears and claims of something, something, forty percent.

Light does not like this Hideki Ryuga. Seiko, despite never having met him as she has a strong distaste for all things coffee and social and would never set foot in a cafe unless dragged there by Misa, finds every story about him to be endlessly amusing. Just about every day that Light works she demands to know what he’s done that day. Light tries not to tell her, as he knows it only leads to laughter and teasing, but sometimes he just really needs someone to vent to about this _infuriating_ man.

Misa is only interested in him because of his name and has stopped by the Moon Cafe on multiple occasions in an attempt to meet him. She has never succeeded in arriving at the right time and always leaves disappointed, a brownie for Seiko in hand.

This day, however, Misa _does_ arrive while Ryuga is there, sitting at one of the little two-person tables with his laptop out, chewing on a quadruple chocolate cookie. The second she realizes _who_ the strange man in the disheveled clothes, with the messy hair, with his feet sticking halfway out of his shoes is, she prances over to him and begins chatting.

Another customer comes up, so Light is unable to listen in on their conversation or watch either’s body language, though he can easily enough guess what Misa’s saying. _Oh my god, Light has told me_ so _much about you. You’re Hideki Ryuga aren’t you? You know, I’ve worked with the pop star Hideki Ryuga, he wasn’t nice at all and he’s a_ horrible _kisser!_

Misa is unrepentant in her distaste for the real Hideki Ryuga and whenever she speaks of him she speaks of the time she appeared on his show and had to have a kiss scene with him. Most people take the inclusion of this as an attempt at flirting, but the fact is that she simply finds his kissing prowess _that_ awful.

Light wonders if Ryuga will think of this as flirting or if he will simply brush it off.

Actually, he had expected the conversation to end rather quickly. Ryuga doesn’t seem like the type for conversation outside of talking about which sweet is the best, which Light doubts is the subject of conversation between the two of them as Misa generally avoids overly sugary things.

“Ruho,” Light says, his customer service smile plastered on as a woman walks up to collect her order.

Eleven more customers come in and order before Misa returns, a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.

“That Hideki isn’t nearly as bad as you make him out to be,” she says.

“Is that so,” Light replies, only half listening as she talks and he gets started on the physiology essay. Half is actually probably a bit too much as, by the time she’s finished talking and is ordering the quadruple chocolate cookie to take to Seiko, he hasn’t the faintest clue as to what she had said.

As she leaves, she says, “Bye Light!” with an energetic wave, as usual, and then, “Bye Hideki!”

Ryuga responds with a half hearted raise of his hand. Not that Light blames him, he seems to be deeply immersed in whatever it is he’s doing on his computer. Work of some sort, probably. Maybe he’s a journalist or some sort of writer, that’s usually the type that comes in to type away on their computers.

Light sighs and continues to work on his essay until the next customer comes in.

\----

Whenever Sayu stops by the apartment when Misa is there, it always turns into a big event. Misa and Sayu get along scarily well and Light always, _always_ somehow gets shoved into the kitchen to cook dinner. It’s not so bad, he generally likes cooking, it’s just that he has to juggle everyone’s taste from Sayu’s sweet tooth, to Seiko’s ridiculously picky palate, to whatever Misa happens to be into at the moment.

While he cooks, Seiko will occasionally stop by to double, triple and quadruple check to make sure that he’s making something that she’ll eat. Otherwise, the girls all crowd together on the couch to play video games and watch TV.

They’re never able to play video games for very long because they all tend to get loud and start yelling in the excitement of what is apparently the _event_ of Sayu visiting. This loudness always, inevitably, causes the next door neighbor, Kiyomi Takada, to knock on the door and demand silence because she’s _working very hard on her criminal justice degree and can’t afford to have shoddy work just because two girls who don’t even live here decided to get loud_.

Light understands this, of course, he’s just resigned to the fact that when it’s Sayu and Misa there is very little he can do.

So when there’s a loud, furious knock at the door Light puts aside his cooking, steps around Kuroko, who is still there and with no sign of leaving, and gestures at the girls to shut up for a few minutes while he talks to Takada. Honestly, is it so hard to keep quiet while playing racing games? Yelling isn’t going to get you to go faster.

Light opens the door and is immediately greeted by Takada’s scowling face. Her arms are crossed, her face scrunches in annoyance.

“ _Again_ , Yagami?” she demands. “This is the _third_ time this month and I have a very important test coming up in my History of the Japanese Legal System class.”

“Trust me, Miss Takada, I’m not happy with this either,” he replies with a weary sigh.

Sayu leans her head over the back of the couch and frowns at Light. “What d’you mean you’re not happy about this?” she demands, mostly playful in attitude.

“I have classes,” he replies as his answer.

“As do I,” Takada adds.

Misa turns around on the couch and leans so her arms are dangling over the back. “Aw, why so serious, you two? Take a break once in a while! Kiyoyo, come play with us, you’ll relax!”

“Hah! Suck it!” Seiko exclaims as the winning screen shows on the TV.

“No,” Takada replies stiffly, then seems to relax only marginally and brings a hand to her head as if trying to quell a headache. “No, just, I’m working on something _important_ , and I would like to focus without distraction - is that a cat?”

Light follows Takada’s gaze and grimaces when he spots Kuroko. Right, she’s just as rule abiding as Light but lacks the influence of two very not rule abiding people. She will most definitely use this against them somehow. Well, it’s certainly what Light would do, anyway.

“You’re not supposed to have pets, you know.”

“He’s just a baby,” Misa says, pouting ever so slightly. “You can’t just turn away a baby like that, Kiyoyo. He needs a home.” Sayu and Seiko mimic her expression.

“He can find a home elsewhere,” Takada replies flatly. Kuroko butts his head up against Light’s leg and meows. Takada’s expression tightens and her lips purse. “Just - just shut up for the night and I won’t go telling the landlord.”

Light sighs in relief. That’s much less to manage than he would have made anyone deal with, if the situations were reversed. “I’ll keep them quiet, Miss Takada, thank you.”

She nods and leaves.

Light walks over to the TV and switches it over to Sayu’s favourite channel. The three of them groan and Sayu and Misa try to protest, but Light is quick to remind them about the threat that Takada had _just_ given them.

While they eat the separate things Light had prepared for them, because he had found it impossible to balance sugar, cantaloupe and whatever Seiko’s taste can be considered in a singular meal, Sayu ends up talking about something that is very interesting to Light.

"Dad says that those assaults that've been happening, you know the ones?"

Light nods and urges Sayu to continue.

"Right, well, it turns out they brought in some outside help for it. Some really famous detective guy."

"Which one?" Light asks. He doubts it's who he really hopes it is, but maybe it's Deneuve, he's impressive as well.

"Hmm," Sayu hums in thought as she stuffs a spoonful of rice into her mouth. She swallows and says, "I'm not sure - he had a weird name, though. Something short, maybe a letter?"

"L?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"Ooh, I think I've heard of him," Misa says excitedly. It's not surprising, really. Misa has always had a strange repertoire of knowledge where she really only knows things that could never possibly be of use to her.

“Dad says he might get to work with him,” Sayu says. “Apparently it’s a pretty big deal.”

“Of course it’s a big deal,” Light says, hiding the excitement he feels. “L is the best detective in the world, if dad gets to work with him that’s important!”

Seiko smirks and murmurs, “I’ve never seen you so excited about anything, Light.” She lifts her cup to her mouth to drink several gulps of her water.

Sayu grins and opens her mouth, likely to say something deeply embarrassing at Light’s expense, and is interrupted by Kuroko jumping up onto the table and meowing loudly.

“Aw, Kuroki wants some attention!” Misa coos and starts scratching behind his ears, to which he purrs loudly and plops down. Seiko and Sayu immediately reach out to start petting him as well. That cat is a master manipulator.


	2. heart attack.

**chapter two. heart attack.**

It’s a miracle, the day Hideki Ryuga doesn’t visit the Moon Cafe. 

It‘s probably the most peaceful day of work Light has had since the man’s appearance. It’s not that he’s a direct distraction, of course he isn’t, he just quietly sits at his table. He’s an  _ indirect _ distraction, one that fills Light with annoyance and irrational agitation. It’s nice, not having that.

Light visits his family that evening, or rather, he visits his mother and sister because his father ends up being too busy working on a ‘super secret case,’ as Sayu put it. She winks dramatically and then informs Light that she had accurately guessed what case it was and Soichiro had made her promise not to tell anyone. So she didn’t tell anyone and Light is well aware that the case is the string of assaults in downtown Tokyo.

“So, how’s school?” Sachiko asks. Most people would only see her smiling, friendly face and not suspect anything is wrong, but Light (and likely Sayu, as well) know that she’s very disappointed in her husband’s absence. His increasing work hours have taken a toll on her and, according to Sayu, there’s apparently some tension at home.

So, because of all this, Light puts on a smile more genuine than his customer service smile, but just as wide, and tells his mother that all is good.

“Still top of your classes?”

Light nods. “They’re not very hard, or at least, not as hard as everyone makes them out to be.”

“Yeah, but you’re a genius,” Sayu says. “Of course one of the country’s most intensive medical programs isn’t  _ ‘that hard’ _ for you. I’m surprised you haven’t somehow managed to land a job yet.”

“I have a job.”

“I mean a  _ job _ job.”

“I just started the program, Sayu, of course I don’t have a-” Light sighs “- ‘ _ job  _ job’ yet. I doubt any hospitals or the NPA would want to hire someone who hasn’t even finished their degree.”

She shrugs. “Well, if anyone could manage it, you could.” She then turns to their mother and says, “You know, Light’s gotten really good at cooking! He made four separate meals last week for  _ one _ dinner!”

“Well if you three weren’t so picky-”

“Oh, you enjoyed it,” Sayu interrupts him with a wave of her hand.

“Well isn’t that nice,” Sachiko says. “You used to hate cooking so much, I’m glad you’ve grown into it. I’m sure you will too, eventually, Sayu.”

Sayu sticks her tongue out. “Doubt it.”

“It’s actually quite fun. You said Light likes it, why not you?”

“Because Light likes tedious things.”

“I do  _ not _ like tedious things,” Light says harshly over the instance of his mother that cooking isn’t tedious. His phone begins buzzing in his pocket and a quick check of the number shows that it’s Seiko and she very rarely calls, so he knows it must be urgent. The oncoming inane argument is avoided when he stands and excuses himself from the room to take it.

He’s immediately greeted by the sound of a clattering bus.

“Seiko?”

“Hey, Light,” Seiko says, her voice seemingly calm but laced with tenseness and anxiety. “Just letting you know, I’m not going to be home tonight. Something’s happened with Misa. I’ll explain later.”

“Oh, is Misa okay?”

There’s a pause, the sound of shuffling around and bright blue hair moving against the speaker. “Yeah, she’s - well, she’s fine, given the circumstances. You might be hearing about it, actually.”

“What do you mean?” Light demands.

“I’ll explain later,” she repeats. “Tell your mom hi from me.”

“Uh, right.”

“Yeah... remember to get back to the apartment by seven, Kuro needs dinner.”

“Right, yeah, I’ll do that,” Light says with a nod that no one can see. “Tell Misa whatever it is she needs to hear right now.”

Seiko laughs weakly. “Yeah, I’ll do that. Well, bye, Light.”

“Bye.”

Light pockets his phone and returns to the dinner table. Sayu and Sachiko seem to have picked up on the general tone of the call and are quick to ask what had happened.

He shakes his head. “I’m not sure, Seiko wouldn’t explain. Something with Misa - she said she’s fine considering the circumstances, so don’t worry, Sayu.”

Sayu nods, but continues anxiously chewing at her bottom lip.

“Well, send her my best wishes,” Sachiko says. “I hope Misa’s alright.”

Light nods. “I’ll tell her you said that.”

Conversation moves to lighter topics, but it seems stilted and half hearted. Soichiro calls Sachiko at one point to tell her he’s going to be even later than expected. Light wonders if it has something to do with Misa, considering Seiko’s suggestion that he might hear about what had happened.

Light leaves earlier than he had originally planned to, with Sayu in tow as she insists on going to make sure Light takes proper care of Kuroko.

\----

Sayu leaves early in the morning to make sure she gets to class on time, so, for about thirty minutes, Light is left alone in the apartment he so rarely gets alone time in with nothing to do but look over his physiology essay one last time before turning it in and keep an eye on Kuroko.

Classes go by in a horribly slow manner with Light thoughtlessly checking the time on his phone every few minutes. Slowly, physiology turns into quantitative reasoning, which turns into a slow lunch in the Moon Cafe (still no sign of Hideki Ryuga), which turns into criminal law, which turns into his working hours (again, no sign of Hideki Ryuga).

When he finally returns to the apartment, Seiko is in the kitchen. Light suspects Misa is somewhere in the apartment -likely Seiko’s room- because when left to her own devices, the most Seiko does by way of cooking is grabbing a bag of chips unless Misa is sick and then she tries her best to cook. Misa and Light are both well aware that any food she makes somehow manages to teeter on the line of ‘ _ how the fuck is this so spicy _ ’ and ‘ _ there is absolutely no taste here _ ’ while also managing to dive into both. Her cooking is genuinely and extremely unpleasant.

“Oh, thank god,” she says in relief when she notices Light. She is well aware that she is as talented a chef as Kuroko is a tailor. She shoves a cookbook into Light’s hands. “This is Misa’s favourite food, help me make it.”

“Not even a please?” Light sighs as she sets the book down, takes off his bag and then his jacket, and walks into the kitchen area.

“No, fuck you.”

Light quickly surveys what progress Seiko has already managed to make and decides that it’s useless before tossing it all out. He wordlessly starts cooking and Seiko retreats to her room.

She emerges a few minutes later with an empty cup. Light is using the sink when she gets to the kitchen, so she has to wait for him to finish until she can refill it.

“So, what happened?” Light asks as he moves aside.

“Oh, so I guess you didn’t hear.” The sink thrums as water rushes through the pipes. Light doesn’t think Seiko has showered today.

Light shakes his head. “I’m assuming this is something my father should have some information about?” She nods. “I didn’t see him yesterday, he had to work late.”

“Oh.” Seiko shuts off the tap and fidgets. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

A few moments later, the door to her room opens and closes. When it’s open, Light can hear the laugh track of a shitty sitcom.

Seiko comes back and leans against what little counter is left uncovered by bowls and ingredients. “Her parents died,” she says without preamble.

Light stops stirring, only for a moment, before resuming and saying, “Oh, that’s - how?”

“Well, you know those attacks we were talking about last time Sayu was over?”

Light nods.

“I don’t know all the details, obviously, but the police seem to think that the guy who did those is the guy who killed them - Renta Matsuura.” She spits the name out like it alone leaves a foul taste in her mouth.

“How do they know?”

“Oddly enough, the guy just up and died of a heart attack right there in front of Misa, they double checked his DNA or whatever with some left behind after those attacks and it matched.”

“He had a heart attack?” Light asks. He puts down the bowl he’d been mixing up and sets the soup on the stove to warm. “How old was he?”

Seiko shrugs. “Not old. Not even thirty, from what I hear. It’s pretty odd, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

They’re both silent for several more minutes until Seiko sighs and says, “I never met them, you know. Misa’s parents. We were supposed to have dinner with them next month. Me and Misa and her parents and mine.” She brings a hand to her face and groans. “God, mom and dad don’t know what’s happened yet.”

Light isn’t entirely sure how to respond to this. He pauses and blinks and is saved by the gentle gurgling of the soup. He shuts off the stove and pours a serving into a bowl. Seiko has already gone back to her room by the time he’s finished.

He goes to her room, bowl of soup in hand, and opens the door. Misa is sitting in Seiko’s bed, knees pulled up as she leans into her girlfriend’s side, Kuroko is sitting beside her, purring. A sitcom is playing on Seiko’s computer, which she has set up at the foot of the bed.

“Oh, thank you, Light,” Misa says when she notices him. Seiko takes the bowl and hands it to her.

“It’s no problem,” he says. “I’m sorry about what happened.”

Misa nods and sticks a spoonful of the soup into her mouth.

Light spends the rest of the night in his room working on homework. He thinks Misa wants to be alone with Seiko for the time being, so he leaves them be.

\----

Light hums as he scrolls through his new feed. It’s the same day after day, has been for weeks - a bombardment of repetition. Normally, Light would hate it, be extremely annoyed by the unchanging tone and message of countless news websites and channels, but this is different.  _ This  _ is interesting.

Criminals have been dying from heart attacks. 

It makes no sense whatsoever because there certainly seems to be a pattern - all the apparent victims have committed horrible crimes and all are dying of heart attacks. It’s impossible for someone to be killing them without slipping them all some type of poison. But that can’t be what’s happening because people on opposite sides of the world will die at the same time and if it  _ was _ a poison, there would probably be some people who didn’t die from it, either because it just didn’t react properly or because people don’t always die from heart attacks. But the experience is uniform between everyone.

It’s perplexing to say the least and what’s more is that this had started happening not long before Renta Matsuura died in the exact same manner. He, like many of the other so called victims, had been perfectly healthy and no one could figure out how he had died. No one had officially connected Matsuura to the rest of the deaths, but it’s timing and the details of it line up with it. The only outlying fact is that Matsuura’s crimes were less than the other victims.

He doesn’t bring this up to anyone, especially not Misa, who, after a week of mourning has just started to force herself to get back to work.

Something else that Light doesn’t tell anyone is that, somewhere in the back of his head, he thinks Misa might be involved. It’s ridiculous, he knows, the girl is hardly the murderous type, but he can’t help thinking about the fact that Matsuura had just killed her parents and had turned on her and he just so happens to drop dead without leaving a scratch on Misa? It’s suspicious to say the least, but he brushes it aside. How could Misa Amane have possibly killed a man with a heart attack? How could  _ anyone _ kill anyone with a heart attack?

Heart attacks continue to happen.

Classes carry on.

Rumors spread.

Hideki Ryuga does not come back to the Moon Cafe.

And then there’s Kira.

It’s all at once, when Kira comes into the public consciousness.

Seiko, who is a bit more savvy when it comes to navigating online communities, mentions Kira a few days before the news starts reporting about them. It’s only in passing that she mentions it, a quick, “Oh, have you heard of this?” Apparently she doesn’t actually know much about it and had only heard of it mentioned a few times online. 

Misa, unsurprisingly, is an aficionado of information on Kira from the get-go, but Light doesn’t find this out until the news sites are already posting about it. She’s been very busy, throwing herself into her work, scheduling modeling shoots for every hour and getting her agent to talk to other agents about acting opportunities. Light doesn’t talk to her much anymore.

Sayu, for her part, doesn’t know very much about Kira either, but from the way she talks about them it almost makes Light think she has a corkboard full of pictures and notes and draping red string in her room. She doesn’t, of course, but she speaks with such an air of confidence that it makes it seem as if she does.

They start talking about Kira in Light's criminal law class. Apparently Takada believes that Kira is doing the right thing and leads that side of the argument in the classroom. Light isn't nearly as confident in his view on the otherwise unknown figure. In fact, his opinions on the whole thing seem to fluctuate and shift each time he thinks about it.

Mostly, Light doesn't think Kira is real. It's much more likely that this is some sort of freak event rather than a powerful being striking righteous retribution on the scum that rots the earth.

No, this is not the result of a person, or deity or what have you. This is simply some sort of bizarre epidemic concentrated within prison populations.

It infuriates him that there hasn't been a single person to even  _ think _ to examine the corpses. Light's fingers itch to get into one and see what exactly is causing these heart attacks. The likelihood of that actually happening, however, is depressingly low.

Light knows that his father is working on the Kira case and that the Matsuura attacks, as they're now being called, followed this closely by another intense high profile case is getting to him. According to Sayu, he sometimes doesn't come home for days. She's worried about him and about their mother. Light is too.

There’s a broadcast by the ICPO that interrupts every channel for the message. L, the greatest detective in the world, is revealing himself and Light can’t help but feel disappointed. This seems like too big of a risk - it’s too much right at the beginning of an investigation. L - Lind L Tailor, he’s - the only word that can adequately explain what Light feels is  _ disappointing. _

The plan is stupid, it’s as simple as that.

And then Lind L Tailor chokes and wheezes and clutches at his chest, clawing at his suit. He goes limp and collapses. Two men come onto screen and begin pulling Lind L Tailor away from the desk. 

The screen goes blank.

An  _ L _ in fancy script shows itself on the screen and the next voice is one that’s heavily modified.

“ _ Ah. I had to test this, just in case, but I-I never thought it would actually happen. Kira... it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did, indeed, kill Lind L Tailor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me. _ ”

Light watches the screen in fascination. L explains that Lind L Tailor had been arrested in complete secrecy - no one knew about it. So Kira, if there is a Kira, isn’t omnipotent.

“ _ But I assure you, L  _ is _ real. I  _ do _ exist. Now... try to kill me! _ ”

Nothing happens, L is demanding that he be killed.

“ _ So there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint, _ ” L says. “ _ I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I know now where you are. _ ”

Light has to admit that this  _ is _ impressive.  _ If _ there really is a Kira, which certainly does seem more likely now - the chances of this being random or some sort of disease seem extremely low now, not that it wasn’t already absurdly low. Every possibility seems absurd.

Light watches with rapt attention until the broadcast ends and the TV returns to the news.

He sighs. That was interesting and all, but now he’s got to get back to his homework. His tedious, easy homework. He thought med school was supposed to be  _ challenging _ . Maybe if he had gone into some sort of surgery it would be harder.

Seiko opens her door, splashes of paint decorating her arms and legs and a phone in hand. It seems she’s either doing something for her two-dimensional art class or is working on the tiled mural project she’s doing with her drawing instructor - something to raise funds for some animal shelter. “Was there like... a weird broadcast thing?”

“I - yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

“Ah.”

She stands in the doorway for several more moments.

“Why?”

“A bunch of people are talking about it online,” she shrugs. “They aren’t making much sense. It’s all  _ ‘blah blah blah L blah blah blah Kira blah blah blah dead guy _ .’”

“Are you wondering what happened?”

“...Yes.”

Light sighs and quickly tells her what happened. She hums, then nods and retreats back to her room. Light goes back to his homework, only to be interrupted by Kuroko leaping up onto his papers and plops himself down, looking quite happy with himself as he rolls onto his back.

With another sigh, Light reaches out and begins petting the cat.


	3. kira

**chapter three. kira.**

It’s the first time it’s been all four of them in a long time - Light, Sayu and their parents sit around the little table in the dining room and Soichiro has something to tell them.

“I figured you’re going to find out sooner or later,” he says. “So I might as well tell you now. I don’t want you to be alarmed, I’m sure you’ve heard about this whole Kira situation - well, I’m currently in charge of the investigation.”

“Yeah, we know, dad, we figured that out already,” Sayu says.

“This is serious, Sayu. The FBI sent twelve of their agents to Japan to assist us and all of them died. Anyone who’s actively going against Kira may be a target. His crimes are ruthless and more frightening than anything we’ve ever seen. Many detectives have already quit.”

“Oh - I didn’t know that...”

“Your life is so much more important than some job,” Sachiko insists. “Please quit.”

“I would never be able to forgive myself if I just let this evil run free,” Soichiro says.

Light nods, he thinks he’d feel the same in that position. “Well, dad, if anything happens to you, I’ll find Kira myself and make sure he’s executed.”

\----

He’s waiting for him, when Light leaves his immunology class.

Hideki Ryuga.

Standing, hunched over and waiting, a thumb brushing over his lower lip. It’s been two months since Light has last seen him and he’d just assumed he’d moved somewhere else or at least found a different coffee shop to antagonize. Not that Light  _ really _ cares, he’s hardly thought about the guy, it’s just...  _ disconcerting _ to see him again. After months. Outside his immunology class.

“Light Yagami,” he says when he passes.

“Hideki Ryuga,” he replies.

Ryuga is walking beside him. It feels rather a lot like he’s being followed by some sort of twisted shadow with his hands stuffed in his pockets as he shuffles his way after Light.

“What do you want, Ryuga?” Light asks.

Ryuga hums gently before replying. “Your father is Soichiro Yagami of the NPA. You hope to one day help him and other police officers as a forensic pathologist. You’re at the top of all your classes, rarely getting below a perfect score.”

Light looks over at him, unsure of what he’s getting at with this.

“Your father is working on the Kira case and you have your own interest in it. And you’ve helped the police with several cases before... I’m impressed by your abilities and your sense of justice. If you promise not to tell anyone about this, I have something important to tell you about the Kira investigation.”

“Do you?”

“Yes. I have to tell you, I’m L.”

No. That absolutely  _ can’t  _ be true. It  _ cannot _ be true. This  _ can’t _ be L. And even if he is, what reason could he possibly have for revealing himself to Light?

“I would like to speak with you - give you a test of a sort, if you don’t mind that is. Feel free to refuse.”

Light checks his watch, already knowing that he’s got more than enough time. “That’s fine, I guess. I’ve got time.”

“Good, there’s a cafe we could go to.”

Light shrugs and follows Ryuga - or L, if that’s who he really is.

“I know you know I work here,” Light says as they enter the Moon Cafe.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also be a patron of it.”

They order their drinks - a coffee with twenty-two sugars and three creams for L and a water for Light. They take a seat at one of the more isolated tables - L sitting with his feet up on the chair. Light tries to tell him that he should put his feet down.

“I don’t sit like this because I want to, I have to sit like this,” L explains. “If I were to sit normally my deductive skills would be reduced by roughly forty percent, I believe I’ve told you that before.”

“Right, well, what did you want to talk to me about? You said something about a test?”

L nods and fishes something out of his pocket - three photographs of notes, according to L they were written by three separate inmates - supposed victims of Kira.

“Take as long as you want, let me know what you think.”

Light reaches over and grabs the photographs. A quick look over them seems to be nothing. A short glance to the back shows that there are print numbers - obvious ones. He looks back at the messages. Perhaps there’s some kind of code?

Ah, yes, when just the first characters of each line are read, they spell out a message. Light sets the photographs down in accordance to their print number. “If you look at just the first characters, lining them up like this,” he says, “they spell out a message. Directed at you, presumably. They don’t make much sense on their own, but put together, it reads ‘ _ L, do you know? Gods of death love brown kittens _ .’”

“That’s incorrect,” L says and reaches for his pocket again. “The thing is that there were actually four photographs.” He arranges all four. “Put together, they read ‘ _ L, do you know? Gods of death love to snack on little brown kittens.’ _ ”

Light resists the urge to say something indignant and instead says, “I see. Do you expect this to be a message from Kira?”

“Yes, I do.”

“How does that work?”

L tilts his head, his thumb resting on his lips. “I believe that Kira is capable of controlling his victims actions to an extent.”

Light can’t help laughing a bit. “I’m sorry, but I just find that hard to believe. I don’t even know if I believe in a Kira, but I can certainly see why you would think this was a message from him, if he did exist. It’s clearly meant to throw you off guard, get under your skin. It’s a good thing we all know gods of death don’t exist.”

L hums and bites his finger. Light can’t help but feel he’s being passed under an x-ray. That wide, owlish, grey glare bores into his very being.

“L,” Light says, interrupting the long stretch of silence, “how could I have  _ possibly _ known that there was a fourth part of the message?”

“Simple, there’s always the possibility for more information.”

They enter another bout of silence. Light’s gaze shifts around the cafe, from a coworker of his preparing a cappuccino, to the wall art, to the photographs and back to L.

“However, in this case, the fourth photograph I provided you was a fake,” he says and Light feels prickles of irritation all across his skin. “Now, Light, if you were faced with someone who might be Kira, how would you go about proving their innocence or guilt?”

Light pauses and sips his water. “I’d probably try to get them to admit something that hasn’t been made available to the public. Is that what you’re doing, L? Do you suspect me?”

“Truthfully? Yes. It’s only about a one percent chance that you are Kira, but I can’t dismiss any suspects until I’m one hundred percent certain that they are innocent. Either way, I’m impressed with your deductive reasoning. You’ll be an excellent forensic pathologist. It’s a shame you aren’t going into detective work. I would quite like it if you joined the task force.”

“You would? Don’t you suspect me?”

“Yes, but, you see, I’m in a position where even if you are Kira it would still benefit me to have you working with me.”

“I see, if I’m Kira there’s a chance I could incriminate myself, if I’m not, I might be able to help further the investigation. You stand to gain either way.”

“Yes, precisely.”

“Well, L, I’m well aware of the dangers of going into this and, as I know I’m not Kira, I certainly don’t want to risk my life, at least not right now. For all I know,  _ you _ could be Kira, chasing your own tail in circles in an attempt to throw suspicion off of you. You might not even be L, but I imagine that might not be too hard to prove. Perhaps my father could prove your identity?”

L pauses.

“Light.”

“Yes?”

“You talk a lot.”

Light opens his mouth to protest, but L is quick to continue.

“I don’t imagine it would be too hard to prove my identity to you. I appreciate your caution.” He hand snakes into his pocket once more, this time pulling out a faintly buzzing phone.

As he answers, Light’s own phone begins to buzz in his pant pocket and he’s quick to pick it up.

“Light.” It’s his mother, she sounds stiff and close to tears. “Your father-”

His eyes go wide and the rest comes to him as if he’s underwater. Dizzying and hard to understand.

L’s eyes are wide as well. He says, “Light, it’s your father, he’s-”

“He had a heart attack,” Light finishes. His hands shake as he hangs up the phone. Is it Kira? It can’t be, can it?

Light isn’t sure when he and L get into the back of a dark car, an old man is driving them. He knows his name is Watari, but can’t remember learning it. A quick glance at his phone shows a text exchange in the group chat he’d been forced into by Sayu.

Sayu is on her way to the hospital as well, Seiko and Misa are sending their best wishes.

He closes out his messages app and shuts off his phone.

\----

Sayu had gotten to the hospital after Light and L, and had stayed in the room after they had left.

L stops Light before he enters that black car again.

“You have a cat?”

Light desperately restrains himself from hitting the man in front of him.

“My father just had a heart attack and you’re asking me about my  _ cat _ ?”

“It’s important,” L insists.

“Fine, then, yes I have a cat.” How did L even figure that out? Is it possible that he saw Kuroko on his phone background? Yes, that’s probably it.

“And he’s brown?”

Light grinds his teeth together. He knows where this is going. “ _ Yes _ , I have a brown cat named Kuroko because my roommate and my roommate’s girlfriend wanted to keep him. You can’t  _ possibly _ suspect me of being Kira even more just because I  _ have a cat _ .”

“It’s only a marginal increase - you’re at about four percent now.” He begins walking for the car, then stops and turns to look at Light again. “And I  _ am _ sorry, Light. I sincerely hope your father has a fast recovery.”

\----

Seiko and Misa are at home when Light gets back. They ask him if he’s okay and about his dad, he answers that he’s fine and that his dad should be fine soon. Misa tries to shove Kuroko into his arms in an attempt to cheer him up, but all three of them end up covered in scratches instead. It  _ does _ make Light feel a bit better, in a strange way, but he retreats to his room.

It’s dark outside.

Light glances out the window. 

He can’t see any stars. He can never see any stars. When he was younger, he would spend hours staring up at the sky when he couldn’t sleep and he hasn’t had the time to recently. He doesn’t think he’d like it anymore - it’s just depressing, staring up at that vast nothingness.

He turns away from the window, grabs the first book he can reach and falls onto his bed. He knows he won’t be able to sleep tonight, so he might as well read. If that fails and he can’t focus, he’ll find something else to do.

\----

It’s a saturday, a month later, when Soichiro picks up Light from his apartment to take him to the Kira task force headquarters.

Light isn’t sure what he expected, maybe a room in the NPA headquarters, maybe its own building, maybe he wasn’t expecting anything in particular, but what he wasn’t expecting was a hotel. It’s a nice hotel, one of the higher class ones, but it’s still a hotel.

Soichiro parks his car, pavement crunching under tires as he slows to a stop. The car engine halts and both men step out into the parking lot. The doors shut behind them in quick succession and they begin the walk to the building.

Light says nothing about the choice of venue, he simply follows his father in wordless stride.

“Once we reach the room,” Soichiro says as they walk to the elevator, “make sure not to make contact with anyone, not Sayu, not your roommate, not anyone.” The elevator opens and, besides them, it’s empty. “And remember that the name L is asking us to call him is Ryuzaki.”

Light nods. “Got it.”

Everyone in the room is someone Light knows -Aizawa, Matsuda, Mogi, Ukita- except for the woman. She introduces herself as Naomi Misora. She apparently used to be a part of the FBI, came to Japan with her fiance after leaving and then her fiance died - or was killed by Kira. Apparently, she’s the driving force of the investigation after L - she’d figured out that Kira could kill in ways other than heart attacks, after all.

“Light,” L says when he enters the room, his gaze intense and unwavering. He isn’t wearing shoes.

“Ryuzaki,” he replies coolly.

“Do you know why I wanted your help now, specifically?”

Light pauses, then says, “No, not why you wanted it now.”

L wipes his thumb across his bottom lip and rests it there as he talks. “We’ll be coming into ownership of the bodies of a few victims soon. I would greatly appreciate your expertise.”

“Oh, I’ve never - I mean, I’ve seen autopsies before, but I’ve never performed one-”

“I trust in your abilities. And Misora will be overseeing you to make sure you aren’t concealing anything from us or doing anything otherwise suspicious.”

“Why can’t the NPA’s forensic pathologists do this?” Light asks. It’s not that he doesn’t want to do this, he very much  _ does _ want to do this, he just isn’t sure if he’s the best choice for the job.

“None of them are willing to help,” Soichiro answers.

Light nods. “So why am I here  _ today _ if you don’t have the bodies yet?”

“It would be best to get you caught up with everything beforehand, just in case something regarding the information we know ends up being important to the autopsies,” L says. “What sort of information might prove useful in an autopsy, I’m not entirely sure, but seeing how unusual this case is, it’s best to cover all bases. Plus, I would like to keep an eye on you. Tell me, Light, how is Kuroko?”

Light stiffens and scowls at the man in front of him. “He’s fine.”

“I see, that’s good. Before we get you caught up, would you care to elaborate on your thoughts on the case?” he crawls into one of the arm chairs, feet on the cushion, knees hugging his chest, hands resting on knees.

Light nods. “To be completely honest with you, I’m not sure if I really believe in Kira. To me, the idea of someone who can kill by causing heart attacks -and apparently other methods as well as control his victim’s actions- just seems unbelievable. What’s going on is definitely improbable, but doesn’t quite fall into the same realm of impossible as the idea of Kira. However unlikely, it’s still possible that everything could line up the way it has and have it still just be natural causes. 

“I’ve also considered that it might be some type of poison. It’s possible to create something that could cause cardiac arrest, though it’s highly unlikely that it would be this consistent and would also require multiple people to be behind this in several high ranking positions in order to get the poison to the victims.

“It’s possible that the actions you’re taking to be Kira controlling them, could simply be erratic behavior from illness, if this is a new form of illness, which I have also considered, although that wouldn’t explain account for three seperate victims writing a coherent message.

“Over all, everything is either impossible or teetering on the edge of impossible and I believe that there simply is a reasonable explanation for this. Then again, considering the situation, I can’t fully discount the idea that there might be a Kira.”

L, Soichiro and Misora are quick to explain everything they know after this. Aizawa supplies some information, as does Matsuda, but Mogi and Ukita are mostly silent as they multitask between listening to the conversation and doing the work they’ve been assigned to do.

It all certainly is confusing and, if it wasn't actually, undeniably happening, Light would say it was impossible. But clearly it isn't impossible because it _ is _ happening.

“So why exactly do you believe that Kira can kill in other ways?” Light directs this question to Misora, she so far has seemed very adamant about this, but has yet had the time to delve into her reasoning.

“I believe that my fiance met Kira,” she says. “There was a robbery in a restaurant he went to while tailing a suspect and I believe Kira was in that restaurant, controlling the robber until he ultimately died by tripping into a knife. He’d had to reveal his FBI ID, but I’m not sure who it was he showed it to.”

“You were one of the people he was following, by the way,” L tells Light. “And this did happen around the same time he was investigating you.”

“You had someone following me?” Light demands.

“Yes, of course. Everyone with connections to the task force was investigated, that’s why the FBI were here in the first place.”

Light sighs. He doesn’t like it, but it makes sense. He would have done the same thing, were he in L’s position.

L is standing closer, scrutinizing Light’s every inhale, exhale and eye movement. It’s suffocating and Light can’t help but take a step back.

“So, who are all the suspects, if you can tell me, that is.”

“At the moment, it’s just you and Misa Amane...”

“Misa?”

“Yes,” L says, tilting his head and looking upwards and then back down. He doesn’t make eye contact, but his gaze bores into Light’s forehead and he feels as if his innermost thoughts are being pulled at and expelled for the detective to see. “I trust you’re aware of the Matsuura attacks?”

Light nods. “Of course I am.”

“Well, I believe that Renta Matsuura was one of Kira’s victims.”

“I actually kind of thought something similar,” Light admits. “But Misa isn’t involved in this more than just witnessing his death, I’m sure of it. She’s completely innocent.”

“I can see why you would think that seeing as you’re friends, and I will admit that she is not as likely to be Kira as you - remember that when I say I suspect you I mean that there is only a seven percent chance. Misa Amane is at five percent.”

“And we’re your  _ only _ suspects?” Light demands.

“For the time being, yes.”

Throughout the whole day, L is as insufferable as he would have expected from his short interactions with him before. He spends the whole day, when he isn’t hunched over his computer, speaking with the members of the task force, or eating a truly ridiculous amount of pastries and sweets, he’s keeping a close watch on Light. It’s as if he thinks that he might just give himself - might snap and say  _ I’m Kira _ or that any slight movement might incriminate him. As far as Light knows, everything he says or does is adding to or subtracting from L’s percentage of Light’s guilt.

By the time he’s leaving he feels like exploding, but he won’t. He can’t do that infront of people. Maybe he’ll be lucky and be the only one home when he gets back-

His phone buzzes.

**Seiko -** youre still out with your dad right?

**Seiko -** if yes please pick me up the buses dont run over here and ms hoshi had to leave 

**Light -** Depends. Where are you?

**Seiko -** on the far side of to-ohs campus

**Seiko -** you know, where im working on that mural with ms hoshi

**Light -** Can’t Misa get you?

**Seiko -** shes working :(

Light sighs and asks his father about the detour as they’re getting into the car. Soichiro says that it isn’t a problem and Light passes the message on to Seiko.


	4. bodies.

**chapter four. bodies.**

Light really isn’t qualified for this.

He’s standing at the edge of a scene of a suspected Kira victim’s death. The victim, Katsuji Sakurami, had died just outside his house, right on the street, hit by, of all things, a bicycle. He’d hit his head just right to crack his skull and damage his brain just enough in all the right places to kill him.

Naomi Misora is there as well, standing with her arms crossed as she watches Light carefully maneuver his way around the body. It’s disconcerting but he does his best to ignore the stare. He doesn’t think she likes him very much. Then again, he  _ is _ the main suspect as to who had killed her fiance, he probably wouldn’t like him much either.

Light’s gloved hands reach out to move the face. Blood seeps out of the seams of Sakurami’s lips - dark and thick, a lot like syrup. Light gently places the head back and pries open the mouth. Sure enough, blood has pooled there - his teeth are stained. Apparently he’s also taken quite a lot of damage to his gut; lifting his shirt proves it as there are several large bruises.

Light clamps Sakurami’s mouth shut and turns his head again, trying to get a good look at the back. Unfortunately, everything is just a disgusting bloody, hairy mess.

He takes several more minutes to examine the body, but without the ability to perform an autopsy, he can’t tell much.

“It could simply be an accident,” he says and Misora frowns at him. “I mean, it seems a bit odd for Kira. Wouldn’t he usually go with getting hit by a car, not a bicycle?”

Her expression softens and she gives a small nod. “Yes, it’s possible, but it’s best to be thorough. I’ll call Watari - have him collect Sakurami’s body and take it to storage.”

‘Storage’ is just what it sounds like. Nobody knows where Watari keeps everything, but it’s somewhere that can allow the holding of a few bodies. That’s where they, along with a few other things, are being kept until the building that’s being built for the new headquarters is complete.

Light steps away from the body and pulls off his gloves. Damn, there’s no trash can. What the hell is he supposed to do with these?

“We have access to his house,” Misora says, eyeing the gloves with a faint look of disgust. Her phone is held up to her ear, Light can hear a faint ringing. “I’m sure you can dispose of those in there.”

“Are you sure that’s-”

“No one’s going to notice.” She leans into her phone and says, “Watari, Light is done examining the body.”

Light heads for the house, feeling like he’s doing something wrong as he hunts for a trash can to throw away the gloves he’d used to examine the body of the man who lived here. He almost felt like he was breaking and entering, but he’s not and he knows he’s not.

He tosses the gloves into the trash can in the kitchen. This is definitely not the proper disposal protocol.

“Your dad is taking us to headquarters,” Misora says when Light returns. Watari has somehow already managed to pick up the body. “He should be here in a few minutes.”

Light nods and they wait in silence. He almost wishes Matsuda was here, at least with him awkward silences were only momentary. Then again, with him even the slightest amount of silence of any kind is rare.

When they return to the hotel, Light explains everything he’s learned from Sakurami’s body, which is, unfortunately, very little. “I’ll have to perform a full autopsy to learn anything else,” he says.

L removes his finger from his lips but leaves it hovering only an inch away. “I see,” he says. “Well, good news for you, the new task force headquarters should be ready in only a little under two weeks. In the meantime,” he steps forward, “I would like to speak with Misa Amane again. Could you arrange that?”

“I don’t know, she’s been really busy lately.”

“I wonder why that is.”

“I know what you’re suggesting, Ryuzaki,” Light snaps. “Misa is not Kira.”

L hums and steps back. “Will you ask her to meet me?”

Light sighs. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Good.”

“What do you mean  _ again _ , Ryuzaki?” Matsuda demands. “You’ve gotten to speak with Misa Misa before?”

L ignores him in favour of urging Light to go ahead and call Misa.

Light sighs and pulls out his phone.

It doesn’t take long for Misa to pick up.

_ “Hi, Light! _ ” she chirps.

“Hi, Misa. Listen, you remember Hideki Ryuga? From the Moon Cafe?”

_ “Ooh, yeah! Why, what about him?” _

“Well, he’d like to speak with you again sometime.”

_ “Really? Wait a minute, you’re not working right now, what are you doing with Hideki Ryuga? _ ”

_ “Hold on _ ,” comes Seiko’s voice.  _ “Is that Light?”  _ A pause and a rustling sound.  _ “Can I speak to him?” _

_ “Yeah, sure, of course! Light, I’m handing you over to Seichi.” _

_ “So Hideki Ryuga from the coffee shop, right?” _

“Yeah,” Light says.

_ “I thought you were doing something so important you couldn’t tell us. Let me guess, Hideki Ryuga from the coffee shop is L, right?” _

Light pauses, not sure if he should tell Seiko that, even if she’s the one who’s figured it out.

_ “Right, so I’m taking that as a yes. And L suspects Misa, right? That’s why he wants to talk to her?” _

“Well-”

_ “So that’s also a yes. Misa, if you go talk to L would you mind if I join you?” _

_ “Of course I want you to come!” _ Misa exclaims.  _ “Ugh, why would he even suspect me of being Kira?” _

_ “Right, Light, if Misa talks to him, I’m going too. _ ”

“Alright,” Light says. “Hold on.” He pulls the phone away from his ear and turns to L. “My roommate is insisting on coming as well.”

“That should be fine,” L says.

Light lifts his phone again. “He says that’s fine.”

_ “Good _ .”

There’s some rustling again.

_ “I’ve got the phone again,” _ Misa says.  _ “I’m free for lunch tomorrow. I’ve got nothing scheduled from noon to two.” _

Light turns to L again, “How’s tomorrow some time between noon and two?”

L nods. “Yes, that works.”

“Okay,” he says into his phone. “What about the place?”

_ “How about the Moon Cafe, _ ” she suggests. 

Light relays this to L and he agrees.

_ “Good!” _

\----

L is waiting for Light outside his quantitative reasoning class.

He tells him he’s going to the Moon Cafe with him. Light tries to protest, but somehow ends up sitting beside L and across from a grinning Misa and scowling Seiko.

“I don’t like cafes,” Seiko mutters.

“Yeah, me neither,” Light says.

“Oh, stop being such downers, you two,” Misa chides.

“Yeah, stop being such downers,” L says in his dull monotone.

“He’s literally investigating you,” Seiko hisses. “He literally thinks you might be a mass murderer.”

“To be fair, I suspect Light more than I do Amane.”

Seiko gives a blasé wave of her hand and says, “Well, that’s just sensible.”

Light narrows his eyes as Misa laughs.

“So,” L says, leaning forward and breaking Misa’s laugh, “you have a cat?”

Light groans. “What is with you and our cat?”

“Kira likes cats, we know this much.”

“And how exactly have you come to this conclusion? Is it because of that note he left you?”

“Yes and no. Surely you’ve noticed that in addition to some of the worst criminals around, Kira also kills owners of kitten mills.”

“ _ How _ am I supposed to have-?” Light interrupts himself with a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Okay, whatever, Kira loves cats.”

L frowns, but nods and turns back to Misa. “I take it that you were part of the reason behind Light keeping the cat?”

“Of course I was,” Misa huffs. “It was January, I couldn’t just let him kick Kuroki out in the street.”

“And Misa wasn’t the only one arguing to keep him,” Seiko interjects. She’s glaring at L, it’s obvious that she doesn’t like him. “I was as well, as was Sayu. I hardly see how this is relevant to this discussion. Just because Kira likes cats and Misa likes cats doesn’t mean they’re the same person.”

L, surprisingly, nods and moves on. To a perfectly normal conversation about a romcom, of all things. There’s no doubt in Light’s mind that L is reading into everything Misa says and he certainly doesn’t miss the accusations he’s subtly slipping into the conversation. Seiko bristles at each one, but Misa brushes them off as if they’re nothing. If Light didn't know better he would have thought that she hadn't even noticed them, but Misa isn't stupid. She's definitely noticed.

\----

The new headquarters are big. Very big. With twenty three floors above ground and two below, it's a miracle it was built in the time it had been. One of the underground floors is the morgue, the other is holding cells, for some reason. Everyone is asked to move in, though Aizawa doesn't, and this includes Light and Misa. With Misa comes Seiko and her big black bag of paints, tiles and canvases. The task force is unsure of her and Misa's presence, but L is able to convince them that they need to keep an eye on Misa. They get their own floor. Matsuda loves Kuroko.

Light almost immediately starts on the autopsies with Misora watching over him. She has him questions and has him explain everything he's doing and everything he finds.

Light, once again, feels that he is not qualified for this as he cuts into the heart of one of the heart attack victims.

"And now what are you doing?" Misora asks. It seems that Light has slacked off in his commentary. It's very hard to keep up with it all, to be fair. Most people don't have to carefully maneuver around a chest cavity while explaining everything to an ex-FBI agent who is only there to make sure they don't do anything  _ suspicious _ .

Light sighs, pulls his hand from the cadaver and steadily replies, "I'm checking the heart itself now since there wasn't anything out of the ordinary with anything else that could lead to cardiac arrest. Now this is a very precise thing that I am very much not trained to do yet, can you  _ please _ just let me focus on it."

Misora simply nods, keeping her hawkish glare on Light and his hands as cuts and opens and prods.

And eventually there is just nothing.

Nothing out of the ordinary for each body's cause of death. No traces of poison or hints of abnormalities. They just died how they died, no one would suspect that they might be the victims of some sort of supernatural being.

Light can't help laughing a little. It's so ridiculous. A supernatural being? Fuck, he doesn't believe in this shit, but that seems to be what Kira is.

L is disappointed by the information, but doesn't seem particularly surprised. The rest of the task force is in a similar state and Soichiro demands that Light stops working with the task force now that he's done what he's gone there to do.

He doesn't have to leave, though, in fact, L makes sure that his help is welcome.

"Besides, he'd be here anyway," he reasons. "I  _ do _ need to keep an eye on him, he might as well be of use."

\----

It doesn't take long for Light to adjust to the new surroundings, even though his every movement is being watched. The building is nice and he likes helping on the investigation when he isn't in class or working. Misa also takes to the new situation right away. Seiko is less forgiving when it comes to change. She struggles to navigate the building, frequently complaining about the sheer size of it. She's also exceptionally wary around anyone who isn't Misa or Light. She eyes food made by Watari or Mogi with suspicion, rarely responds in more than a word unless she's defending Misa's innocence to L and she hardly ever leaves her floor when she isn't out.

Light is honestly surprised that L hasn't begun to suspect Seiko of being Kira as well.

Only Watari, Soichiro and Matsuda are up for breakfast most mornings, so Light doesn't have to deal with Misora and L's off putting glares as he eats and prepares for class.

"Man," Matsuda says into that morning's paper, "have you guys seen this latest murder? It's  _ brutal _ ."

Light leans over to catch a glimpse of the paper. There, right on the front page, is an image of a tented off area.

"' _ Police refuse to go into much detail,' _ " Matsuda reads, " _ 'claiming that the details are far too gruesome to be published. What they will tell us is that the victim, 19 year old Yuri Honda, was made to suffer. Whoever did this is truly a danger to society and we sincerely hope that they are caught before they can commit another atrocious crime.' _ I sure am glad we aren't working on anything like this."

"Matsuda," Soichiro says sternly, "that is hardly something that should be read over breakfast." 

"Sorry, chief." Matsuda deflates, folds up the newspaper and sets it down as he resumes eating.

Light grabs the paper and examines the picture. It looks like it's somewhere familiar... If only more of the background could be seen. He quickly skims through the article. It certainly seems like a gruesome case.

"This is at To-Oh," he says. "Right by the medical school."

Soichiro frowns and Matsuda adopts a curious expression.

"Do you think you can get some information about it?"

" _ Matsuda _ !" Soichiro exclaims, then turns to his son. "Light, you are not to look into this. Focus on your school work."

"I wasn't planning to look into it," he lies. "Don't worry, dad."

\----

He’s being followed. Light is always acutely aware of Misora’s gaze on him and he isn’t sure if this is because L requested it or if she’s doing it of her own volition, he wouldn’t be surprised either way.

There’s a large area closed off my police tape right between the medical school and the art building. There’s officers milling around, talking in low voices and taking notes as they move in and out of the large tent. A journalist is speaking with one of the officers tasked with keeping civilians out of the way.

Light approaches one of the other officers, one that he knows from a previous case he’d helped figure out. He ends up being of absolutely no help.

\----

Sayu shows up at the doors of the task force headquarters. Soichiro asks how she even found out which building they were in.

“I’m not an idiot,” is her simple response. “So let me in, I brought over games from Light’s apartment-”

“How did you get into my apartment?” Light demands.

“Not telling.” She sticks out her tongue. “Anyways, can I go in now? Misa, Seiko and I can  _ finally  _ do something without Takada interrupting!”

Light sighs and exchanges a glance with his father, who clears his throat and says, “I’ll go ask Ryuzaki.”

He returns soon enough with news that as long as she doesn’t leave Misa and Seiko’s floor, she can enter. Light has to guide her to the elevator and go up with her to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere else. Sayu tries to convince him to stay, but he dismisses it and goes back to the main hall with the rest of the task force.

He’s not actually doing anything investigation related, in fact, the investigation has come to a bit of a lull the past few days, so Light is doing his homework. L watches over his shoulder, he seems extremely bored for the time being.

Up on the monitor being used to watch Misa, it shows that she, Seiko and Sayu are all getting worked up over whatever they happen to be playing. Aizawa lowers the volume with a scowl as they start yelling.

\----

“Am I seeing things or is that Matsuda having lunch with Miss Hoshi?”

Light follows Seiko’s gaze and sees that Matsuda is indeed having lunch with Seiko’s drawing instructor.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, that’s weird.”

Seiko adjusts the big black bag she has hanging over her shoulder, inhales and decidedly walks over to their table. Light sighs and follows her, she’s being a bit dramatic about this.

“Hi, Miss Hoshi,” she says when she reaches the table, “I was wondering if you’ll be available to work on the mural today?”

Hoshi nods and says, “Oh, yes, the usual time should be good-”

“Hi, Seiko! Hi, Light!” Matsuda says cheerily.

“Matsuda,” Light greets him, then turns to Hoshi, who he has met on occasion. “Miss Hoshi.”

“Yagami,” Hoshi says. “How do you two know my brother?”

“Ah, Matsuda’s your brother?”

Hoshi nods.

Light goes to answer the question, but Seiko, unfortunately, beats him to it and says, “He’s keeping Light and my girlfriend under surveillance for completely inane reasons.”

“Hey, now, Seiko,” Matsuda says, “I don’t suspect Light  _ or _ Misa Misa. Plus, I’m Misa Misa’s new manager so-”

“Ah,” Hoshi says, “so I take it this has something to do with the case that finally made him move out of my spare room.”

Matsuda laughs awkwardly and rubs at the nape of his neck. “Yeah, I guess.”

Hoshi leans forward and says, “So what exactly is it? I’ve got some ideas, but Touta won’t tell me anything concrete. Seeing as you're both civilians, surely you can tell me without any moral qualms about job protocol or what have you holding you back.”

“I’m afraid that’s not for us to say,” Light says, just as Seiko says, “It’s the Kira case.”

“Really?” Hoshi raises an eyebrow in interest and leans back. “I thought it might be, but I wasn’t sure. Good job, Touta. So, Yagami, you’re a suspect?”

Light shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Oh, yeah, I guess. It’s not that serious. They’re actually letting me help with some things.”

“You’re a suspect and they’re letting you help?”

“Oh, don’t worry, he’s being monitored all the time,” Seiko says offhandedly. “Besides, he’s too morally uptight to  _ actually _ do anything.”

Light sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Matsuda offers for them to join him and Hoshi for lunch, and Hoshi echoes the sentiment, seemingly enjoying watching the interaction happening before her. Seiko readily agrees as it turns out she has to speak with Hoshi about something related to the mural, so she shits beside Hoshi and Light sits beside Matsuda.

“Light, does Seiko not like me?” Matsuda asks in an urgent undertone.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Matsuda,” Light replies wearily. “She doesn’t like anyone in the task force.”

This, as it turns out, was not the answer Matsuda was looking for as his eyes widen momentarily before he nods and declares that he’ll be trying to get on her good side. Light is positive that that is a waste of energy, but, instead of saying that, nods along with him.


	5. misa misa.

**chapter five. misa misa.**

Light is surprised when he sees L bright and early in the morning before his eight o’clock physiology class. No one else is up yet, which isn’t abnormal, Light is usually the first person to enter the dining room except for Watari.

Light blinks and rubs his eyes, then says a weary good morning. In response, something cold and hard wraps around his left wrist with a  _ click _ so fast he’s unable to avoid it.

The chain is long, linking Light’s left to L’s right. For a moment he just stares at the handcuff and then the morning fog seems to lift and he’s outraged.

“What the _ fuck _ , Ryuzaki!” he demands, roughly gesturing to his chained wrist.

“I’ve decided that this is the best method to observe you with,” he replies in his usual unwavering, unchanging flat tone. “You’re still my number one suspect, it’s clear to me that I need to keep a closer eye on you than I have otherwise been doing.”

“You have Misora  _ following  _ me and you think that’s not a close enough eye?”

L tilts his head and casually stares up at the ceiling, before directing his grey gaze back at Light. “She can’t see everything you do - this way there won’t be a single thing I can miss.”

“I have  _ classes _ ! And a  _ job _ ! I can’t go with you chained to me!”

“Why not?”

“Why not - why  _ not? _ Ryuzaki, this is ridiculous!”

The door opens and a very bedraggled Seiko shuffles in. She stops in her tracks when she sees what’s happening and immediately turns on her heels and stalks out without a word.

“I don’t see why this should be stopping you from going to your classes.”

Light scowls at L and snaps, “I don’t care if you don’t see why this is completely  _ absurd _ , I’m not setting foot  _ anywhere _ with a grown man chained to my arm!”

“Ah, so would you go if Misora were the one chained to you?”

“ _ No _ !”

“What about Matsuda, he’s hardly a  _ grown  _ man.”

“ _ Ryuzaki- _ ”

“No, you’re right, he wouldn’t be able to pick up on anything important... Well, it’s not like it bothers me if you don’t attend your classes. Go or don’t go, I don’t care.”

The door opens again, this time revealing Soichiro, who immediately pauses when he sees Light and L and then demands to know the meaning of this. He is even more adamant than Light that the chain be removed and, by the time Matsuda also arrives, Light is resigned to his fate. He’s not happy about it, but he’s going to have to deal with it and he just hopes his dad calms down about it soon.

Matsuda isn’t too happy about it either, but he’s trying too busy desperately trying to mediate the conversation and calm Soichiro down to get any opinions in.

When Ukita joins the scene, he does his best to ignore the commotion and leaves the second he’s got his coffee.

Light almost doesn’t even notice Misora’s entrance as all she does is slide into a seat and silently watches.

Mogi, upon entering, seems as if he’s just about to do exactly what Seiko did, but instead he places a hand on Soichiro’s shoulder and tells him in his deep, calming voice to at least listen to L.

“As I was saying,” L says, tapping his fingers against the table. “My suspicions of Light have only increased recently and as simply monitoring him and having him followed has provided no evidence leaning towards his innocence or guilt, twenty four hour surveillance is the best thing to do. This will be temporary until I either believe that Light cannot be Kira or until I am sure that he is Kira. This is also the fastest way of determining either of these things as I will be aware of every single thing Light does - either I will see him acting as Kira, or assisting Kira in some manner, or he will prove his innocence.”

“What about his classes?” Soichiro demands.

“I’m already drafting an email to send to them,” Light answers with a sigh, typing away on his phone, already feeling as if a good portion of the day has passed. “I’m sure it’ll work out fine.”

Soichiro lets out a resigned sigh and joins Light, L and Naomi at sitting at the table. Mogi and Matsuda then follow and breakfast turns into an unusually tense affair. Matsuda, of course, tries to lighten the mood, but fails miserably.

\----

When Light calls into work to explain that he won’t be able to come into work for the foreseeable future due to ‘an unexpected opportunity’ they hardly hesitate in firing him. He isn’t surprised, really, he’d had to cut down on hours to have enough time to help with the task force, so having to stop going in such short notice - he doesn’t blame them for it, even if it’s annoying.

His teachers are much more forgiving with the ‘extremely intensive internship’ he’s undertaking and all agree to his suggestion of being emailed all the assignments and getting alternate assignments for the ones that can’t be done online.

Honestly, Light isn’t too disappointed by this change - school was boring, not challenging at all, at least this investigation, even with it’s lulls, even if he’s the main suspect, even if he’s chained to the lead detective, is interesting.

Misa ends up finding the situation to be extremely amusing and bursts out laughing the first time she notices the handcuffs. Seiko simply mutters something along the lines of,  _ “As long as it isn’t Misa... _ ”

One interesting thing that Light learns about L is that he rarely sleeps and when he does it’s usually in his chair. Light is sure that isn’t healthy and tells L this on multiple occasions, but he always brushes away all concern with weak excuses that Light can’t possibly combat. 

It’s infuriating, the fact that L never sleeps. Light just wishes he could grab him and drag him right into their so called  _ shared _ bed and make him get a good eight hours of sleep in a  _ bed _ .

\----

“Hey, Ryuzaki?” Light says as he clicks through the case files on his computer.

“Hm?”

“Why do we have a file on Yuri Honda’s murder?”

“Oh,” L takes the fork out of his mouth and swallows the piece of his cake. “I suspect that her death is linked to Kira.”

“How?” Light asks. “She wasn’t a criminal and her cause of death is nothing like any of Kira’s other victims - excessive lacerations, missing chunks of flesh, it’s too excessive for Kira.”

“Maybe so, but I believe that this is Kira’s doing.”

“What makes you say that?”

“The fingerprints of Kichiko Iwatani was found at the scene, on a knife that had been left behind - she was also found to have died of a heart attack in her house a few days prior. Iwatani was notably missing her hands.”

“Her hands?”

“Yes, her hands. I believe that Kira, for whatever reason, did this himself and somehow used Iwatani’s hands to leave fingerprints - likely to confuse the police.”

“I see.” Light skims through the rest of the file on Honda. “Why do you think Kira would do something like this?”

“Honestly?” L sighs and starts chewing on a finger. “I have no idea. This bothers me, I think Kira may be getting too confident in himself... taking risks, he may start branching out.”

“But if he starts taking risks, won’t that make it more likely that we’ll catch him?”

“Logically, yes, but nothing about this case is entirely logical. The mere premise, you’ve said it often enough, it’s impossible. Kira is smart, he is also creative and has some sort of supernatural power on his side. Who's to say if we’ll be able to catch him or not? I worry that he will begin going to greater and greater extremes and we may be unable to stop him...”

This irritates Light. He’s just handcuffed them together and is already talking about being unable to stop Kira? Isn’t that what this chain is for?

He voices his thoughts and L stops to regard them.

“Truthfully,” L says, he takes another bite of his cake, “I’m depressed.”

“Depressed?”

“Yes, Light, I’m depressed. I suppose it’s the dead end we’ve come to. Even with this new addition of Yuri Honda’s murder, there’s no solid evidence as to who is Kira. I’m still suspicious of you and Amane, but the actual evidence to convict you or anyone else for that matter simply isn’t there. Like I said, Kira is smart - he’s good at covering his tracks and - where is Amane?”

Light looks up to the monitors, Misa is, seemingly, nowhere on her floor.

“Did Matsuda come in and take her somewhere for a photoshoot?”

L’s eyebrows knit together as he says, “No, I don’t think so.” He navigates through his computer. “She hasn’t got anything planned for today...”

“Maybe she-”

The hurried  _ click click click _ of heels on stairs interrupts Light and Misa comes practically running into the room. She stops at the bottom of the stairs and holds up a hand as she catches her breath. Kuroko comes tumbling down after her.

“Sorry,” she says, “I just think I have something important to tell you and I had to rush down here before I lost the nerve to say it.”

L pushes his chair towards her, leaning forward in interest. Light urges her to continue.

“Okay, so I’m going to start this off by saying that I am definitely  _ not _ Kira. But I think I know how he kills people.”

“You - know how he kills people?” Light demands, tensing and fighting the urge to leap out of his seat.

Misa swallows and nods. She reaches into her jacket - she has been pressing one arm up against the side of it and Light only just notices. What she pulls out is a little black notebook.

“A notebook?” L asks curiously, he reaches for it, but Misa pulls it back, chewing at her bottom lip.

“Hold on, let me explain before you touch it.” She pushes it back into the depths of her jacket. “It’s - well, it’s called a Death Note, and they belong to shinigami, or at least, they normally do.”

Light and L exchange a glance. Shinigami. Gods of death.  _ Gods of death love brown kittens. _ Kuroko butts his head into Light’s leg.

“I got mine - well, that doesn’t matter right now! I have one and I think Kira does too.”

“What exactly does a Death Note do?” Light asks.

“When you write someone’s name in it, they die. You can specify how, according to Rem, anyway, but if you don’t they just have a heart attack.”

“Really?” L says, sounding intrigued.

“Who’s Rem?” Light asks.

“Oh, that’s the shinigami who gave me my Death Note. You can only see her if you touch my Note.”

“Can I see your Death Note now, Amane?” L asks, holding out his hand.

She nods and places the notebook in L’s hand. He holds it from the top corners with just his thumbs and forefingers, as if he’s afraid it might blow up, though Light knows that’s just how he holds things. He examines it closely, then looks around the room. His gaze focuses on one area and he mutters something to himself before handing the Death Note over to Light.

He takes it and fans through the pages. They’re thin, the notebook is overall flimsy, but still has a quality of immortality. There’s several pages of writing, none of it is legible to Light, he doesn’t even think it’s Japanese, and then, on its own page, right in the middle of the notebook as if it had been pulls open in a hurry, in scattered, rushed writing is the name  _ Renta Matsuura _ .

“Misa, did you-”

He stops when he looks up and, right in his view, is a skeletal creature - huge with spikes protruding from her shoulders and a bandaged eye. Is that Rem? Is this a shinigami?

For a moment, Light can’t speak. That’s a  _ shinigami _ . Shinigami  _ don’t _ exist, they  _ can’t _ and yet, there she is - standing right in front of him.

“What was that you were going to ask, Light?” L asks, turning his attention to the younger man.

Light mentally shakes himself and looks at Misa. “Did you kill Renta Matsuura, Misa?”

She pauses and then, hesitantly, nods. “I had to,” she says quickly. “It was the only thing I could do - he was going to kill me otherwise! He’d just killed my mom and my dad, he was coming after me, what else was I supposed to do!”

“We’ll certainly have to discuss this,” L says. “But that can wait for later.” He turns to the shinigami. “Does Kira have one of these Death Notes?”

The shinigami pauses, then speaks in a low voice. “It’s possible, but I do not know. I may be a god of death, but I am not omniscient.”

L nods.

“I must say that I am not entirely convinced if this is real... the presence of a shinigami certainly helpful in those regards, but how am I to know if this Death Note really kills anyone whose name is written within it? How am I to know that this simply isn’t something that facilitates the ability to see shinigami?”

“You are  _ not _ suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Light says.

“I’m not suggesting anything, I simply wish to have some proof as to the validity of this notebook's power.”

“You and I both know what proof of the Death Note’s ability would entail.”

“Um, there’s something else,” Misa interrupts. “Something I have that I don’t think Kira has, but may be able to help prove that it does actually kill people.”

“What is it?” Light asks.

“They’re called the Shinigami Eyes. You see, shinigami can see a person’s name and lifespan above the heads of anyone they see and they can give these eyes to humans in exchange for half of their remaining lifespan. It was the only way for me to figure out Matsuura’s name. I had to do it. And I can prove it’s real.”

L studies her, brows furrows, finger hovering over his lips and he hums in thought.

“Amane,” he says, “what is my name?”

Without missing a beat, she says, “L Lawliet.”

He nods and the first thing Light finds himself thinking is that he  _ can’t _ believe that L’s real name is  _ actually L _ .  _ Just the letter _ . The next thing is the realization that Misa had given up half of her life hitting him like a slap in the face.

“Wait, Misa, you-”

“I had to do it,” she repeats. “I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t do it. Please don’t tell Seiko, I don’t want her to know.”

Light swallows and nods.

“Well, this certainly does make it seem more likely that this Death Note does as you say,” L says. “And, to be honest, I don’t really want to test it myself. Amane, do you mind if I keep this?”

She shakes her head. “No, I don’t mind. Rem, do you mind?”

“No, I don’t,” the shinigami answers.

“Light, can I see the notebook again?” L asks. Light hands it over and L begins inspecting it again. “Well, it certainly does seem to prove that you are innocent of everything other than Matsuura’s death, though that would be considered self defence. Although, it is possible that you have another one of these lying around, so I can’t rule that out. If that’s the case, revealing the existence of this notebook is either a truly stupid or genius plan, I’m not sure yet.”

He sets the Death Note down on the table and picks up his phone. He dials a number and holds it up to his ear. “Deputy Director Yagami? Yes, I’m just calling to let you know that if I die in the next few days your son is Kira.”

“ _ What? _ ” Light demands, standing from his chair.

L flinches and holds the phone away from his ear, apparently he’s received a similar response from Soichiro.

“I can explain when you and the rest of the task force come back.” He hands up.

“ _ Ryuzaki! _ ”

“It’s really quite simple, Light,” L says calmly. “I suspect you of being Kira - you’ve just learned my name, of course I would suspect you if I ended up dead. It’s  _ possible _ that it could be Misa, but it seems like she’s known my name from the moment she officially met me as L. The likelihood of her being Kira has actually decreased quite a lot. I’m even considering releasing her, though that will have to wait until I’ve thoroughly searched her house, your apartment and her floor to make sure she has no spare notebooks...”

Misa gasps. “Oh, really? I’ll get to leave? What about Matsu, is he still gonna be my manager?”

“Yes, Matsuda will still be your manager, I still need to keep an eye on you, you’re not completely in the clear yet. Now I have a few questions for you - and Rem, as well, I suppose. I expect Light does as well?” L looks over to him and Light nods.

“Yeah, I do.”

Misa shares a glance with Rem and then turns back to L and Light. “Alright, we can answer your questions.”

\----

By the time the task force returns from their lunch outings, Misa and L have both shifted to sitting on the floor, talking quickly and completely uninterrupted about the Death Note. Light is still in his chair, watching and listening but not being able to get any of his own questions in, at least to Misa. Instead, he’s talking to Rem - who he belatedly realizes the rest of the task force can’t see by the time everyone but Soichiro and Matsuda has returned.

“Uh, so what’s happening here?” Aizawa asks, an eyebrow raised as he looks between each element of the scene displayed in front of him.

“Hi, Monchichi!” Misa chirps and leaps to her feet.

“We just discovered some important information,” L says as he nonchalantly rises as well.

“Really?” Misora asks. “What kind of information?”

“I’ll explain once Matsuda and Deputy Director Yagami return.”

“Are you also going to explain why you think Light might kill you in the next few days?” Ukita asks.

“It’s not that I think he’ll kill me,” L says as he climbs back into his chair, knees held high. “In fact, it would be very unlike Light to do so, then again, that is what makes killing me a good plan - it’s unexpected and unlike him. But, yes, I will be explaining that as well.”

It doesn’t take long for Soichiro to arrive, and then Matsuda.

L and Light quickly explain the situation, drawing a lot of confusion and excitement out of the task force, which is only exacerbated once they touch the Death Note. Rem calmly explains the functioning of it when asked.

“But how do we know that this is real?” Aizawa asks. 

“Yeah,” Ukita agrees, “we can see the shinigami, but we don’t know if it can actually do what she says it can.”

“Easy,” L says, “I’ve already asked Watari to find a death row inmate for us to test it on. Amane will be the one writing the name and we’ll have cameras set up to watch the prisoner as they die.”

“ _ What? _ ” Light demands as several other members of the task force shout out exclamations of  _ Ryuzaki! _

L winces at the noise and says, “ _ What? _ There’s no need to talk all at the same time.”

“Ryuzaki, are you sure that’s the best course of action?” Misora asks.

“You  _ can’t _ just kill someone!” Soichiro says.

“Normally, I would agree, but this is the only way to prove whether or not this Death Note functions how Rem and Amane say it does and we’re selecting someone who’s bound to die anyway. Besides, I’d say a heart attack is more forgiving than the typical methods of execution.”

“Still...” Matsuda says.

“It’s still immoral,” Light insists. 

L stares at the space between Light’s eyes and it feels like he’s picking apart every little thing in Light’s head until he finally says, “I wonder, are you saying this to try to make me suspect you less or are you truly this concerned about it? Either is possible, though, while I expected you to have some reservations about the idea, I also expected you to agree with me. Perhaps I simply think too highly of myself, or perhaps you truly are attempting to throw my suspicion off of you. Then again, Kira would likely want to avoid the Death Note being tested at all costs. Light Yagami, the likelihood that you are Kira is now at seventeen percent.”

Light can’t help it. He punches L square in the jaw.


	6. rotten apples.

**chapter six. rotten apples.**

L is a lot stronger than he seems to be and the both of them end up coming out of the encounter with many bruises.

“Alright, fine, it was childish,” L admits, “but I hardly see how I can be at fault when Light is the one who hit me first.”

Light  _ cannot _ believe that the world’s greatest detective is using the ‘but he did it first’ argument. “That’s very mature, Ryuzaki.”

“Well, I did just say that it was childish.”

“That doesn’t mean-!”

“That’s enough,” Soichiro interrupts. “We need to settle this like adults and that means civilly talking. Now, Ryuzaki, I don’t like how you continue to insist on suspecting my son.”

“I can’t help that most of the clues point towards him being involved in some way or another. Whether he’s Kira or simply helping him, I can’t say, but he has the highest percent chance of being involved of all our suspects.”

“Right,” Light says, “well, I’m  _ not _ Kira. I guess I’ll just have to figure out how to prove that to you.”

“Don’t try too hard, that’ll just make your percentage go up.”

Light scowls, but forces himself not to respond.

\----

Light is surprised when he’s unlocked from the handcuffs the next morning. Of course, he’s shoved directly under Misora’s watchful eye, but it’s - well, he thinks he might prefer L to Misora, actually, but his wrist feels better.

“So do you suddenly suspect me less?” he asks.

“No,” L answers, a thumb resting on his lower lip. “I simply do not wish to attract too much attention to myself and I imagine that a chain would get in the way of performing an autopsy. Which you’re going to do today. Of course, the NPA forensic pathologists have already done their own, but I want you to look over Yuri Honda’s body as well. Maybe you will pick up on something they missed. And then there’s no doubt in my mind that you and Misora will find something the officers didn’t at the scene...”

It’s the middle of the day, so there're plenty of people on To-Oh’s campus and Light sincerely hopes that no one spots him and, if they do, they don’t notice Misora’s overly tense posture and unwavering glare. It’s bad enough that Hoshi knows he’s a suspect, he doesn’t need any of his overly observant classmates figuring that out either. Though, he supposes it would be easy enough to explain it away as being surveyed on an outing for his ‘internship.’

The police guarding the tent that is still set up around Honda’s murder scene easily let them pass when Misora shows them her fake police ID - apparently they had been excpecting a Shoko Maki from the NPA along with a new intern.

As Light steps over the police tape and heads for the tent, he remembers the details of the case and starts worrying about what he’s about to see. There’s excessive lacerations, extreme blunt force trauma to the skull, missing chunks of skin - but he’s worried that it’ll be too gruesome for him to handle.

Misora pulls the tent flap open for Light to step in before her and he inhales deeply before stepping forward.

It’s...

Not so bad, actually. The descriptions he’d read of the scene conjured up images of blood soaking every corner of the tent and a deformed body, but it simply isn’t that bad. The cut’s are in abundance, the bashed skull is disgusting and the expression on Yuri Honda’s face is frightening, but it isn’t that heart pummeling, gut throwing, nausea inducing picture he’d expected. She isn’t mauled or mangled or unrecognizably destroyed.

Light’s eyes find the already set up station of tools and pulls on the latex gloves presented for him. He only has to shift mildly to hover over Honda’s body. It seems that they had been given instructions to leave it as close to how it had been found as her clothes haven’t been removed, instead there’s a cut right down the front of her blood stained and tattered blouse that Light pulls aside. Her bra is in a similar condition and he pulls that aside as well.

With her top gone, Light can clearly see the lines of the Y shaped incision and he pulls the cut and broken ribs open to reveal Honda’s chest cavity.

He slowly works his way through her body, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but there’s nothing. At least, nothing he can find beyond the placement of the cuts, which have been placed to maximize bleeding, and the missing chunks of flesh.

He puts Honda’s body back in place, then pulls off the gloves and disposes of them in the trash can. He asks Misora if she’s found anything.

“Yes, actually.” She holds out two airtight plastic bags, one with nothing but the corner of a piece of paper in it, the other with several small hairs. “The paper has some writing on it, but no complete words and the hair seems to be from an animal. What about you?”

“I didn’t find anything that wasn’t already in the case file. It all looks normal - well, as normal as  _ this _ can be.”

Misora nods. “We should be heading back now unless you want to take a look over as well?”

Light shakes his head. He might not like Misora much, but he trusts her ability to be thorough.

They leave the tent and then the sectioned off area, then they’re stopped almost immediately when someone yells, “Yagami!”

Kiyomi Takada is approaching, a bag slung over her shoulder and an annoyed look on her face.

“Hello, Miss Takada,” Light says.

“Yagami,” she repeats. “Where have you been?”

“Busy.”

She frowns and eyes him, then Misora, then the tent. Her gaze settles back on Light. “What were you doing in that tent and who is this?”

“My name is Shoko Maki,” Misora answers quickly. “Light has taken up a very rigorous internship under me and I’ve brought him here to test his field work skills.”

“Oh,” Takada straightens somewhat. “Well, in that case, congratulations, Yagami. I hope this goes well for you. Is that why you haven’t been in class?”

Light nods. “Yeah, I’m doing alternate assignments so I can concentrate more on my internship.”

“Hmm. Do you know what happened to Momonoe? I haven’t seen her or her girlfriend around recently.”

Light internally curses himself. He hadn’t thought about possible explanations for Seiko’s disappearance from the apartments. “Oh, we moved. I had to leave my job at the Moon Cafe so that apartment was just a bit too expensive for us to keep.”

Takada frowns. “Isn’t Momonoe’s girlfriend famous?”

“Yes, well, we don’t want Misa paying for somewhere she doesn’t live.”

She seems like she wants to say something more on the matter, but drops it. Instead she says, “Oh, well, I was only curious about where you’ve been because I wanted to compare notes from our criminal law class. I’ll just find someone else. Have a good day, Yagami.”

“You too, Takada.”

\----

“It’s the same type of paper as the Death Note...” L says, holding the bag up to the light and closely examining the ripped page corner. “I’d say Kira likely had his Death Note, or at least a page of it, with him and it ripped during the process of desecrating Yuri Honda’s corpse. I wonder why, there didn’t seem to be any signs of a struggle, did there?”

“No,” Light answers. “There wasn’t anything under her fingers, no hairs that had been forcefully removed, no blood that wasn’t Honda’s.”

“I see... interesting. And these hairs... I believe they’re cat hairs. What would you say, Light?” 

L holds the bag with the hairs in it up to Light’s face. He bats away his hand and says, “How would I know if they’re cat hairs or not?”

“Hm, I suppose you’re right. Ukita, can you see if the NPA’s forensics team will have a look at these?”

Ukita nods and takes the bags before leaving the room.

As he leaves, Seiko enters, big black portfolio bag slung over her shoulder as usual.

“How much longer do we have to stay here?” she demands.

“You can leave any time,” L informs her. “Amane and Light, however, are still under surveillance.” He lifts his hand, now chained to Light’s once again.

“Didn’t you say they would be able to leave soon?” Light asks.

“Yes, that is true. I just need to make sure there’s nothing that shouldn't be in any of the places she frequently visits.”

“Oh, Seiko,” Light says, “before I forget, I saw Takada today and she was wondering where you’ve been so I said we moved out. So if you can’t think of any explanation as to why you’ve moved back in, I suggest selling the apartment.”

Seiko sighs. “Fine, alright, I’ll tell the landlord we’re moving out, or whatever. Misa’s house isn’t exactly an ideal distance away from To-Oh, but I can deal with it.”

She leaves up the stairs, still muttering to herself.

\----

The Death Note is confirmed to be real when Misa writes the name of a death row inmate. They watch as the man writhes on screen, clearly no one has done anything to him. He’s clutching at his chest and the finally stills.

Misa is upset and leaves immediately without saying another word.

L gives the Death Note to Watari to keep hidden away.

\----

For once, L joins Light on the bed.

He’s on his back, but he still has his knees pulled up to his chest as he stares up at the ceiling. He seems to have no intention of sleeping or doing anything else but lying here.

“Ryuzaki?” Light asks.

“Hm?”

“What are you doing?”

“Thinking.”

“About?”

“The case.”

Light sighs and sits up. “You can’t always be thinking about the case. Just shut your brain off for once and go to sleep. You’ll be able to think about it better if you do that.”

L offers nothing more substantial than a simple hum in response.

Light lets himself fall back and stares up at the ceiling as well. With L beside him, he now doesn’t feel comfortable resting on his side for some reason.

“Would you like to talk about your thoughts on the case, Ryuzaki?” Light asks, breaking the long moment of silence that had permeated the air in an unusual suffocating quality.

“I suppose.” Light doesn’t need to look to know that L has a finger resting between his lips as he speaks. He sighs and adjusts his position slightly. “It’s just that it’s all so bizarre. We keep finding pieces, but they don’t seem to go anywhere. A corner of a piece of paper isn’t interesting or helpful, despite what I might have said, it might not even be relevant. And the pieces of this case that are interesting don’t seem to mean anything.

“Why on earth were Kichiko Iwatani’s hands removed from her body and what happened with them? Why were her fingerprints found at Yuri Honda’s murder scene? Just to throw off the police? But surely there are less out of the way things that can be done to do that. And why would Kira even kill Honda like that in the first place. It makes no sense.”

“Well,” Light says, speaking slowly to allow himself to search for the right words, “we’re dealing with shinigami and a notebook that can kill people. I suppose things aren’t going to make a lot of sense.”

L lets out an irritated sigh. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. But it’s all so  _ frustrating _ . And those animal hairs came back - they were cat hairs. I can’t figure out what the importance of brown cats is in all of this.”

“Maybe that’s just a distraction and cats actually have nothing to do with it.”

“Hmm, maybe.”

The weight suddenly shifts and Kuroko jumps up onto the best. He kneads the space between Light and L before turning in circles and curling up between them. Light watches as L hand finds Kuroko’s head and begins petting him and rubbing behind his ears.

“I guess Misa and Seiko will be taking him,” Light says.

“That’s a shame,” L says, surprising Light. “He really is a very cute cat. Very soft, too.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You don’t seem particularly fond of him. How did you come to have a cat?”

“It was the middle of January and he followed me home. Seiko and Misa started fawning over him, I thought he would only be staying until we found someone else for him and we just never ended up looking.” He shakes his head. “It’s ridiculous, our apartment building doesn’t even allow pets.”

“I see,” L says. “Well, clearly Kuroko is a master manipulator if he managed to get even Light Yagami to break a rule like that.”

Light can’t help laughing. “You know, I think the same thing, you should’ve seen him when he was younger, I’m sure he brainwashed us.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, he’s just a cat - doing what cats do.”

“Cats brainwash people naturally?”

“Absolutely, usually people don’t mind because they’re so cute, but I guess you’re immune to all things good in the world. Further proof of this: you don’t even like cake.”

“Cake is too sweet.”

“Exactly.”

“Misa doesn’t like cake either.”

“Clearly we can see why you two are both suspects, then... Who doesn’t like cake?”

“Plenty of normal non-mass murderers dislike cake.”

L hums gently. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Light rolls his eyes but says nothing.

“I don’t like this case,” L says eventually. “I don’t like Kira.”

“Well, it would be a problem if you liked Kira, wouldn’t it?”

“I mean how he operates. In some regards there's a consistency to him that I can appreciate - he’s predictable, I know who he might kill, but then other times he does something so baffling it hardly even seems like him. I mean, Yuri Honda’s death is so unlike everything else he’s done - she isn’t the same type of victim, her death is entirely different, but she’s still linked to Kira through Kichiko Iwatani, but even her death is unorthodox thanks to her missing hands.

“I just don’t know what Kira wants anymore. At the beginning it was clear - it was an idealistic fantasy, but now, I just don’t know.”

Light stares at the ceiling.

\----

“Ryuzaki,” Misora says, interrupting the concentrated silence of the room with her urgent voice. “Something was just found in the To-Oh medical school.”

“What is it?” L asks, turning his chair to face her. 

She hurriedly scrolls through the page open on her computer before saying, “It’s... hands. Without their skin.”

L and Light freeze. They and Misora are the only members of the task force there at the moment, the rest are scouring Misa’s house and Light and Seiko’s apartment for Death Notes.

“Kichiko Iwatani’s hands?” L asks.

“They don’t know yet,” Misora says, eyes still on her computer screen. Light can see the reflection of dark shapes moving in a blur in her eyes as she scrolls. “I’d say, probably, yes. How many dead bodies without hands are you aware of in the Kanto region?”

“Were the hands removed post mortem?” Light asks.

“Yes, at least that’s the initial thoughts of several medical students and instructors. The officer who sent this to me doesn’t know much about this sort of thing.”

“Misora, go get the hands for Light to examine and bring them here,” L directs. Misora nods and leaves. When the door closes behind her, L muses to himself, “So now Kira is leaving us clues... he’s getting confident. Or perhaps bored. Either way, it’s a bad sign. A confident mass murderer will start getting bold, doing more, as will a bored one. This is getting dangerous.”

“Do civilians know that they’re in danger?” Light asks. “Would it be a bad idea to tell them? I know it would just start a panic, but they should know, shouldn’t they? That Kira might come after them next?”

“I don’t know...” L runs his thumb over his lower lip and pauses. “Do you know when Amane is scheduled to come back?”

Light checks his watch. “It shouldn’t be too long now, less than an hour. Why?”

“I need to ask Rem something.”

\----

Misora returns with an airtight bag of hands and a handful of photographs at the same time that Misa, Matsuda and Rem return. Light is first alerted to their presence by a loud  _ eugh! _ from the doorway. 

Misa is staring at the hand with an expression of complete and total disgust. She turns to Light, hands on her hips and huffs, “I honestly don’t understand how you can do things with all these body parts, Light. How do you  _ stand _ it?”

Light shrugs and takes the bag from Misora as L takes the photographs.

“Oh, before you return to your floor,” L says as Misa starts heading for the stairs, “I need to speak with Rem.”

“Yes?” the shinigami asks, her tone as flat and bored sounding as ever.

“I was wondering if there’s any way to know if someone has a Death Note.”

“There is,” Rem answers. “But it requires the Shinigami Eyes. You see, just as shinigami cannot see the lifespan of other shinigami, a human who possesses a Death Note cannot see the lifespan of another human who possesses a Death Note.”

“I see... and Amane has these Shinigami Eyes, correct?”

Rem’s eyes narrow and she says, “Whatever you are planing, human, if it puts Misa in harm's way-”

“No, it wouldn’t. I was simply thinking that Misa could spend some more time around To-Oh and keep an eye out. I am almost one hundred percent certain that Kira is either a student or an instructor there, so that's where she’s most likely to come across Kira.”

“Oh!” Matsuda says. “And I would be there to protect her! I can blend in pretty well at a college, I’ll make good protection!”

L nods. “Yes, exactly.”

“You know, that isn’t a bad idea,” Light says.

“I could do that!” Misa says, nodding her head until she seems to realize something and deflates. “Oh, but I start shooting for that horror show I’m playing the lead in tomorrow. I won’t have enough time.”

“Hmm...” L hums. “I see...”

“Shouldn’t you look at those hands?” Misora interrupts.

Matsuda shivers and excuses himself from the room as Misa hurries up the stairs, Rem trailing behind her.

Misora reaches over to the picturers L has set down on the desk and spreads them out. “These are photographs of the way the hands were set up when they were originally found.”

Light and L both lean in to examine the pictures. The hands had been shoved into two separate beakers, the flesh that exists below skin splinters and hangs over the edges of the beakers. The hands are positioned perfectly, cupped together with, of all things, a rotted apple resting in the palms.

“Where is this apple?” L asks.

“The officer crushed it when he picked it up,” Misora responds with a scowl, her arms crossed. She’s obviously very annoyed with that officer, as she should be.

Light examines the hands themselves. Even without direct access to them - even with the bag obscuring them, he can still see the places where the flesh split over the beakers and can also see quite clearly two important things.

“This was definitely done post mortem,” he says. “As was the skinning. Whoever did this did a very good job, they clearly have some experience, there isn’t a single piece of skin left and it seems to have been done in a few large sheets. It’s... impressive.”


	7. chains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, this chapter im introducing some noncanon things!

**chapter seven. chains.**

The hands are set up in the morgue in the same way they were in the anatomy classroom. They don’t learn much of anything by doing this, but they leave it just in case.

Light doesn’t know why he’s still chained to L, it seems clear to everyone that he can’t be Kira, and L doesn’t seem to know why they’re still chained either. He watches the chain, a hesitant look on his face. Light can’t possibly hope to understand what’s going on in his brain.

Misa and Seiko leave with Kuroko.

Light is frustrated. Everyone seems frustrated. They may have big developments in the case, but there’s nothing to do despite that. There’s no real clues, no nothing. Just rotten apples and hands and brown cat hair.

“Why are we still handcuffed?” Light asks one evening. It’s started to get warm, so L has pulled him up onto the roof to do whatever it is that he does on his computer. Light can’t imagine it has much to do with the Kira case.

The sound of L typing stops, fabric rustles. Light is lying on his back looking up at the starless sky - he can’t see L as anything more than a vague shape in the corner of his eye.

It takes a moment for L to respond. He hums lightly and Light can hear him gently tapping his fingers against his laptop.

“I suppose,” he finally says, speaking slowly, “that I do not fully wish to be unchained. I’m not sure in which way, but your likelihood of being involved in the Kira case as anything other than a detective is incredibly low, only about two percent... it’s not enough to have us handcuffed together, but when I think of being unchained...” he trails off and doesn’t complete the thought.

Light is taken aback by this admission, but he supposes L has always been rather blunt. He probably doesn’t realize any conclusions that Light could draw from this, so he mentally shakes himself and simply doesn’t think about it.

“Oh,” is his response.

“Do you wish to be unchained?” L asks. “I could call Watari-”

“Well, it  _ is _ inconvenient, but it can wait until you’re absolutely certain that I’m not involved. I’m not really missing anything by just doing all my classes remotely and that cafe job was a nightmare.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“It was horrible,” Light insists. “There were so many terrible customers. One of them had the most absurd order - coffee with  _ twenty two  _ sugars and three creams.”

“That’s my order,” L points out. “You remember my order?”

“Ryuzaki, it’s a ridiculous order, of course I remember it.”

“Of course,” he echoes around what is presumably his thumb on his lip.

\----

Light misses cooking. Thankfully, Sayu, Seiko and Misa have somehow managed to establish themselves in Misa’s old floor, so that means that, while they play video games that Sayu had brought over, Light is cooking. It’s a bit disconcerting, having L hovering over him the way he is.

“Truthfully, I have never seen anyone cook before,” he admits when Light tells him that the chain still attaching them is long enough for him to stand in the doorway. The kitchen on Misa’s floor is, after all, rather small -though it’s still larger than the kitchen in Light’s old apartment. “I find this more fascinating than Amane, Momonoe and your sister playing as little people in cars... Is this bothering you?”

Light shakes his head and is surprised to find that he really isn’t bothered. “No, it’s fine.”

“What are you making?”

Light sighs, not because he doesn’t want to answer, but because the answer is ridiculous. He is, once again, making them each their own separate meal and he makes sure his exasperation at this fact gets through as he tells L exactly what he’s making.

“This seems like a common occurrence for you?”

“Oh, it is. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but Seiko is ridiculously picky and Misa cycles through fad diets like she does outfits. Sayu is much easier to cook for, as long as I put the right amount of sugar into it.”

“I see...”

“I have to do this pretty much every time Sayu visits. Sometimes we’re able to find something all of us will eat, but that’s only happened about three times in the two and half years Seiko and I have been roommates.”

“That must be frustrating.”

“Yes. Very.”

“But you like cooking?”

“Quite a lot actually, yeah.”

“Strange, I never would have taken you for the type to cook.”

Light shrugs. “I picked it up just before I moved out of my parents’ house. My mom insisted that I learn how before I went off to live on my own.”

“Ah, practical.”

“Do you like cooking, Ryuzaki?” Light asks.

“I’m not sure. There’s always been Watari, so I’ve never needed to learn how to cook. It doesn’t seem too different from practical applications of chemistry, though. It has measurements and mixing materials together...”

Light laughs. “Cooking is more than that, though, you can’t just rigidly follow the instructions laid out in front of you. You need to adjust things and do them as you think they should be done. Something I completely disregard the recipe and it turns out far better than it would have if I hadn’t.”

“Oh, well, that sounds awful,” L says rather bluntly and Light can’t help laughing again.

“It’s not for everyone. I guess it’s a good thing you have Watari.”

“Yes.”

“Hell yeah!” Misa yells, evidently she’s won that round of the game.

Seiko groans loudly. “You just  _ had _ to hit me with that blue shell, didn’t you, Sayu?”

“Hey!” Sayu exclaims. “I was just using it for its intended purpose, it’s not my fault you were in the lead!”

“They’re rather loud,” L points out with a frown.

Light sighs. “Yeah, they are.”

When the food is done, they all sit around the coffee table in the living room, some rerun of an older episode of Hideki Ryuga’s show plays in the background.

“So,” Sayu says, “this is for the case you’re working on?” She’s eyeing the chain connecting Light and L.

“Yes,” they answer almost at the same time.

“So Light’s a suspect?”

“Kind of,” L answers.

“Kind of?” Misa asks. 

“What do you mean  _ kind of _ ?” Seiko demands.

“I mean that the likelihood of his being guilty has gone down considerably, but I’m still not at a point where I think he should be let out of my sight.”

“Well, Light isn’t Kira, I know that for sure,” Sayu says with a stiff nod of her head before she takes a big bite of her meal. 

“It’s not that I think he’s Kira - I know he isn’t,” L says. “There’s just a possibility that he’s helping him.”

“Well, he’s not doing that either. How long have you two been handcuffed together anyways?” she asks around her mouthful of food.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full,” Light replies automatically.

“Not too long,” L says, answering the question. “Maybe a few months”

Sayu swallows. “I don’t know how you can stand it, Ryuzaki, he’s insufferable!”

“He’s not too bad.”

“He’s insufferable,” Seiko echoes.

Light scowls at the both of them, causing them to snicker in response.

“Any suspects other than Light?” Sayu asks.

“We can’t tell you that,” Light says.

She does an exaggerated pout and says, “But why  _ not _ ?”

“You’re not on the task force.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sayu, they wouldn’t tell me anything either,” Seiko says with a sigh.

“Or me,” Misa adds with a scowl that Light reads to mean as  _ ‘and I  _ helped  _ you!’ _

Eventually, the conversation dissolved into much more light hearted and regular topics. 

“That mural I’m working on with Ms Hoshi should be done soon,” Seiko tells Light.

“Oh, really? Be sure to tell me when you’re done, I’ll find some way to drag Ryuzaki outside.”

“You had better.”

They then watch in complete awe as every single other member of the table starts heatedly arguing about what the best romcom is.

“This is bizarre,” Seiko whispers to Light.

“Yeah, it is.”

“We should totally have a movie night!” Misa exclaims, leaping to her feet. “A weekly one! Every saturday we rotate who chooses what we watch!”

“Ooh, yeah, good idea!” Sayu pumps her fist in the air.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” L says. “We  _ are _ in the middle of a case.”

“You can take a break once a week, Ryuzaki,” Misa insists. 

Light agrees that L should be taking more breaks, but he’s reluctant to say that because he knows that if movie nights start becoming a thing he is most definitely going to be dragged into them and he generally doesn’t like movies. The idea of crowding around in what used to be Misa’s living room in the dark with a movie playing at high volume just seemed like something that would be deeply uncomfortable.

“No, it would be better if we didn’t do that,” L repeats.

“Well, Misa, Seiko and I will have our own movie night!” Sayu says as if she’s trying to make Light and L jealous.

“Okay,” both men say in response.

“We’re doing what?” Seiko asks.

“Movie night!” Misa chirps and Seiko immediately sighs and nods, saying that she’ll gladly join.

They are unable to convince Light and L to join them.

\----

The mural really is beautiful - large and made of tiles painted in different styles, but all coming together to form one coherent art piece - a cat and a dog playing with each other. In front of the wall is a table set up with pamphlets, business cards and all other sorts of things. Seiko and Hoshi are seated at it.

Light and L have to stand uncomfortably close as the handcuffs still haven’t been removed. Light didn’t mind much, except for the fact that L had just come to the conclusion that Light could be the real mastermind behind Kira, not actually having a Death Note, but telling whoever does have a Death Note what to do. Light has long since become tired of the accusations against him.

“Momonoe sure is talented,” L says.

“Of course she is,” Light says, “she’s in  _ To-Oh’s _ art program.”

The attention L is paying to the mural is surprising, his gaze is intense as his eyes rove over the wall, soaking up each and every detail. Light tugs him towards the table.

“Glad you could make it,” Seiko says and by the twitch of her lip, Light knows she’s thinking about how hard it must have been to drag L out of headquarters. It was very hard. “So, what d’you think?”

“It’s really good,” Light says. “I don’t really know what to say about this type of thing, but, yeah, it looks amazing. All that work paid off.”

Seiko smirks at him. “Thank you, Light. And what do you think, Ryuzaki?”

“Yes, very good,” L says absentmindedly.

“Hello, Yagami,” Hoshi says with a raised eyebrow. “I’m surprised to see you here, last I heard you were working on a very intensive internship.”

“Oh, yeah, I am.”

Hoshi’s eyes flick to the barely visible chain linking Light to L and then back at Light. “I see. And this has nothing to do with the fact that you might be Kira?”

L snaps his attention to the conversation and, at the look on his face, Hoshi laughs a bit and says, “Oh, don’t worry, I managed to figure out what case Touta is working on, Momonoe just confirmed it for me and informed me of Yagami’s status as a suspect. I’m assuming you’re in charge of the investigation?”

L looks around, a bit unnecessarily as they’re the only ones in the area for the moment. Then, he doesn’t even answer, he just narrows his eyes and turns back to the mural.

Hoshi frowns. 

“Don’t mind him, he doesn’t like going out very much,” Light says. “So this mural is to raise money for a shelter, right?”

“That’s correct,” Hoshi says with a nod as she starts gathering some of the papers spread out on the table. “I volunteer there sometimes, but their funds are starting to run low. They do very important work for the community - taking in stray animals, adopting out animals, taking in animals that people don’t want anymore, that sort of thing. They even took in a lot of the cats from that kitten mill that went down a few months ago. We’re not asking for much, only a small donation.”

Light fishes a few dollars out of his wallet and drops them in the mostly empty jar. Then he nudges L.

“Hm?”

“Donate some money, Ryuzaki.”

“You know I don’t carry money, Light. I’ll have Watari send over some later.”

“Exactly how much money?” Seiko asks curiously.

L looks up as he thinks, then back down. “I’m not sure, maybe a few hundred?”

Hoshi widens her eyes, but says nothing.

\----

“I suspect that woman,” L says when he and Light return to headquarters.

“Who, Ms Hoshi?”

L nods. “Yes, do you know her given name?”

Light blinks, surprised. “Oh, it’s Motoki, I think. Why-”

“Mogi.”

The quiet man looks up from his computer.

“Look into Motoki Hoshi - she’s an instructor at To-Oh University.”

“ _ What? _ ” Matsuda demands, leaping to his feet. “You suspect Motoki?”

“Yes, is that a problem?”

“Well - she’s my sister-”

“Ah, that makes it easier,” L says.

“Easier?” Matsuda asks faintly. 

“Ryuzaki, why is she even a suspect?” Light demands.

“Well, she’s an instructor at To-Oh and she works with cats, that could explain the cat hairs at Yuri Honda’s murder scene,” L answers.

“That’s  _ it? _ Ryuzaki, there’s probably dozens of people in the art program alone that spending time with cats would apply to. Why Hoshi?”

“There’s something off about her.”

“Ryuzaki, that is hardly an explanation,” Soichiro says from his seat. “Surely you should know more about this woman before declaring that she’s Kira?”

“I didn’t say that she’s Kira,” L replied. “I simply said that I suspect her, that’s why I’m having Mogi look into her and Misora will start following her.”

“But, Ryuzaki-” Matsuda tries.

“No, it makes sense,” Misora speaks up. “The initial tailing of her showed that she wasn’t suspicious, but now that we know about the Death Note, it may reveal something that was missed. I’ll keep an eye on her. Is she still on To-Oh’s campus?”

“She should be,” Light answers. “Seiko said she would be staying there for a few more hours, I assume Hoshi is as well.”

Misora nods and leaves. Matsuda sinks back into his seat and Soichiro walks over to talk to him in a hushed voice.

L directs Aizawa and Ukita to start looking into people the FBI were tailing again to see if any of them are worth looking into again. He pulls Light into the kitchen and says, “I believe I should probably remove the handcuffs now.”

Light nods his agreement, but doesn’t voice it. Why was he doing this in the otherwise empty kitchen?

L unlocks the handcuffs and sets them on the counter.

Neither of them move.

“I - sorry, I should have done that sooner,” L says.

Light smiles at him. “It’s alright, I understand needing to be thorough and cautious. And I understand why you’re looking into Hoshi, I was just surprised earlier, is all.”

L nods. “That is... understandable.”

They’re standing close.

Neither of them move.

“Do you have any thoughts on who might be Kira? Now that we’re talking about suspects.”

Light shrugs. “No one in particular. And the criteria I’ve come up with are probably nothing special.”

“Tell me anyway, you might have thought of something I haven’t.”

“Well, Kira has to be knowledgeable of the human body and skilled with his hands, if he really did personally kill Yuri Honda and skin Kichiko Iwatani’s hands. He’s likely someone who is prone to boredom and has spare time. Probably involved with To-Oh in some way, either as a student or a teacher, most likely from the medical school, possibly the law school or the art school as they’re fairly close to the medical school. Probably likes animals, specifically cats. I can see why you suspected me, to be honest.”

L nods. “Yes, you’ve come to the same conclusions as me.”

“And I can see why you might suspect Hoshi, but what about knowledge of the human body? Honda’s wounds were very expertly placed to maximize bleeding. And skinning a hand that expertly requires experience, you can’t just go into skinning and do a good job just because you’re a good painter or sculptor.”

“Does Hoshi do sculpting?”

“Yeah, I think so, why?”

“That could have helped with placing the hands - the composition with the hand and the rotted apple was, if you ignore the fact that it was someone's skinned hands, quite beautiful. Almost poetic - disembodied, skinned hands, holding a rotting fruit.”

“I suppose I see what you mean.”

They return to the rest of the task force. Matsuda and Soichiro immediately notice the lack of a chain and are very happy about it. Matsuda congratulates Light, Soichiro claps him on the shoulder and smiles.

\----

Most of the task force has already gone to bed when Watari alerts L that Seiko is trying to gain entrance to the building. With that announcement comes the surveillance footage up on display. Seiko is knocking on the door, moving rapid and rushed, blue hair frazzled and fingers twitching.

“Let her in,” L says.

The doors open and Seiko stumbles in, breathing heavily.

“I - found - something,” she says between strained breaths. “Important - it’s important.”

“What is it?” Light asks.

She hands over a piece of paper. L leans over to look over Light’s shoulder.

_ LIFE EXTENSION RULES _

_ \- kill with your own hands _

_ \- lather yourself in the blood of the victim _

_ \- ingest the flesh of the victim _

“What the hell is this?” Light demands as L takes the paper from his hands.

“I found it in the art department, I went to go drop off the last of the pamphlets and things that were left over from today and this was just lying on the floor!”

“Hmm, it seems to be made of the same material as the Death Note...”

“As the what?”

“Doesn’t matter. Thank you, Momonoe, you can leave now.”

“Hang on!” Seiko exclaims. “I’m not just  _ leaving _ !”

L sighs and pulls out his phone. He dials a number quickly and, only a moment later, says, “Misora, where is Hoshi?” A pause. “She’s gone to bed? Is she still in bed? ... You’ve left already? ... Yes, yes, of course, just make sure to keep an extra close eye on her tomorrow.”

He puts away his phone and Seiko says, “Is Ms Hoshi a suspect now?”

“Yes, she is. Do you suspect that someone else wrote this?”

“I don’t know...” she frowns. “I’ve never seen her handwriting and she doesn’t seem like the type of person to write this...”

“No, she doesn’t,” Light agrees. “But no one ever seems like the type of person who would, do they?”

“People who know murderers are always surprised to learn that they’re murderers,” L says around his thumb. 


	8. comfortable presences.

**chapter eight. comfortable presences.**

Seiko is eventually convinced to leave, and by then it’s late. Light feels like going to bed after discovering the odd note written on a page ripped from a Death Note is not the right thing to do. It seems wrong, but he’s struggling to keep his eyes open.

He’s already got his own room, but that feels wrong too. The room is cold and stiff. It feels empty and, despite Light’s exhaustion, he’s struggling to get to sleep as well. Something’s wrong. Something’s missing.

Without even thinking, he gets up and starts trudging his way down the hall. He knocks on L’s door.

“Come in,” comes L’s soft monotone.

Light opens the door and shuffles in, feeling awkward and having no clue what he was thinking. He didn’t think this far ahead, he didn’t think about this at all, in fact. It seems tonight is one of the rare nights that L has decided to sleep in his bed. He sits up when he sees Light.

“Ah, Light.”

“Ryuzaki.”

“Did you want something?”

“I... I’m not sure.”

L tilts his head slightly, curiously. “You’re not sure.”

Light sighs and pulls at his hair in frustration. “Okay, this is going to sound childish, but I can’t sleep in the other room.”

“Oh, I see. Well, you’re welcome to this one for the night and I could arrange for Watari to switch our rooms tomorrow if you’d like.”

His face feels hot, alarmingly, so, but continues to say, “That’s - switching the rooms isn’t necessary.” 

“I see. Well, make yourself comfortable.”

Light slides himself under the covers. The bed creaks under his added weight and L turns on his side to face Light. His knees are pulled to his chest. Light turns on his side as well.

It doesn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

\----

When Light wakes up, L’s head is buried in the crook of his neck and his own hand is tangled in that nest of messy black hair. It’s soft. He doesn’t know what to do.

Will moving wake L? Maybe he’ll naturally move away in his sleep? But what if he wakes up and knows Light is awake too - and he  _ will _ know that Light is awake, he’s proven that he can tell just from Light’s breathing and his ear is right up to his chest now.

Slowly, Light untangles his hand from L’s hair and begins gently moving away from L. He winces whenever L shifts, but the detective doesn’t wake. He looks completely and absolutely at peace, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, chest gently rising and falling.

It’s strange, getting to walk over to the bathroom while L still lays in the bed.

When Light returns from the bathroom, L is awake, sitting hunched over his laptop.

“Hoshi hasn’t woken up yet,” he says.

“Misora is already following her?”

“Yes.” L pulls at his hair and groans in annoyance. “This is becoming tedious again.”

L slips back onto the bed and crosses his legs. “What about that note?”

L starts chewing on the nail of his index finger. “That’s exactly why this is so frustrating... With something like that, we should have something to do, something to work with, but we’re only going back to the begining with fewer people on our side. Aizawa, Mogi, Ukita and your father are going to start tailing some of the other potential suspects that they found yesterday, but that could take quite a long time. Now, all we can do is wait for them or Misora to see something suspicious.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that that paper came from a Death Note, and the riped corner is the one from Yuri Honda’s murder scene, but we can’t prove that Motoki Hoshi is the owner of the Death Note it comes from.”

Light goes to respond, but is interrupted by his phone ringing. It’s Misa. He sighs, this is about Seiko finding out about the Death Note, isn’t it?

_ “YOU TOLD SEICHI ABOUT THE DEATH NOTE?” _

Light winces and holds his phone away from his ear before pulling it back to his face. “Okay, to be fair, I didn’t tell her anything. Ryuzaki just casually mentioned it.”

Misa huffs and says,  _ “Well, I just had to explain about all of it and she’s... I don’t even know! She’s certainly not handling it well!” _

Light sighs. “Misa, just... that sucks but it’s clearly not my fault.”

_ “I know that!” _ she snaps.  _ “It’s just - ugh!” _ Light can tell by the waver in her voice that she’s been crying.  _ “I think she’s mad at me. For taking the Eye deal. Not even for killing Matsuura, just- _ ” she sniffs.  _ “And I think she’s mad that I didn’t tell her about the Death Note. I probably should have.” _

“Where’s Seiko?”

_ “I think she’s in one of the spare rooms.” _

“Okay, well, give her a bit of time and then go talk to her. You know, apologize.”

Misa sniffs. Something rustles against the speaker - likely her hair as she nods - and she says,  _ “Yeah, alright. I’ll do that.” _

“Good luck, Misa.”

_ “Thanks, Light. Bye.” _

She hangs up and Light looks over to L, who is watching him curiously.

“It was Misa,” he says.

“Yes, I gathered as much.”

“Seiko’s mad at her - about the Death Note.”

L turns his head curiously. “She’s mad? Why would she be mad?”

“I don’t think she’s actually mad,” Light says with a sigh. “Misa had to tell her about that Eye deal she did with Rem, she’s probably worried.”

“But if she’s worried, then why would Amane think she’s mad?”

Light shakes his head. “You don’t know a lot about this type of thing, do you?”

“No, I suppose I don’t.”

“I don’t really either, I guess, but I do know that this type of thing can get mixed up. Sometimes when you’re worried about someone or scared or anything like that, it can get confused. Especially when it concerns someone you care about.”

L hums thoughtfully. “I see.”

\----

It's been a whole week since the handcuffs unlocked and settled back in L's desk and Light is still sleeping in the same bed as him.

There's nothing that unusual about it. Light lies there. L works on his laptop. He's taken to sitting in the bed in the past month or so, instead of just perching in his chair and allowing himself to pass out for hour long increments there. 

"Why do you keep coming back here, Light?"

Light opens his eyes and turns his head only marginally to get a better look at the man sitting beside him. He pauses and takes a moment to answer because, in all honesty, he doesn't know what the answer is. He frowns and thinks and thinks until it might be too long to have reasonably waited for a response but he still says, "To be honest, I'm not sure."

L slowly turns to face Light, a curious look on his face. "You're not sure?"

"Do you want me gone?"

"No, not at all."

"And why is that?"

L looks upwards, a finger resting under his lip as he thinks. His head slowly rolls from side to side and he hums gently. Then, he removes his finger, leaving it hovering just in front of his mouth but not touching it. "I suppose," he says, speaking slowly, "that your presence is... nice. Maybe even comforting."

"Oh," Light blinks, taken aback by the bluntness. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised. "Your presence is also comforting."

Light isn't sure if it's just his tired eyes or if L is actually blushing.

"And it's, I don't know, difficult sleeping alone now," Light admits. He sits up and rubs at his eyes before resting his arms on his knees. 

They're close.

Their knees brush against each other and Light is painfully aware of the resulting heat in his face. He looks away and lies back down, straightening his legs.

"Difficult how?" L asks.

Light shrugs. "I don't know. It's different. It feels lonely, like there's something missing."

L is staring at him, his wide eyes so exceptionally owlish in the dim light. Only the blue light of his computer illuminates the room. The bags under his eyes are so dark.

"I know what you mean," he says. His hands are moving as if unsure of what to do - they're floundering trying to find something to do, something to fiddle with and manipulate, but there's nothing but the hem of his shirt. "It's... strange. To be separate."

It’s strange to be separate.

It's uncomfortable, L's presence is like a security blanket and lacking it makes him feel oddly on edge. L is comfortable, the lack of L is not. It's like nothing Light has ever had to deal with.

"Yeah," Light agrees.

"To tell you the truth, I think you're my first ever friend."

Light can't help the intake of breath he has when he hears this. The same is not true for Light. He has Seiko and Misa and Sayu, but there  _ is _ something about L that is decidedly different than any of them. He's a different kind of friend - a different kind of closeness. He tries to articulate this and fails.

They lapse into silence.

L closes his laptop and sets it aside as the room is swept up in the darkness.

The bed shifts. Fabric rustles. Something gently, anxiously touches his hand. Light opens his fingers, reaches out and, eventually, he falls asleep with L's hand tucked into his.

\----

L is visibly upset with the fact that he has to leave headquarters. Everyone else on the task force is out tailing suspects, except for Matsuda, who they’re going to meet at the scene of where Misa’s shooting that horror show she’s in. He’d just called L and told him that they’d found a body in the area.

“I don’t like having to do this sort of thing,” L mutters.

Light rolls his eyes. “It’ll be fine, Ryuzaki, you went out to look at Seiko’s mural, surely this is something you can deal with.”

“Of course I can deal with it, I simply don’t like doing this. I should make sure someone else is always available to keep an eye on you from now on...”

Light sighs.

The only thing sectioning off the body from everyone else is police tape. There are a few officers milling around and they let L and Light right on through.

“Tohma Yanagi,” L reads the name off his phone.

The man’s body is splayed out on the ground. His skull is bashed in at the front, he’s covered in lacerations just like Yuri Honda and, just like Honda, he’s missing chunks of flesh.

“A knife was left at this scene as well,” L says. “It’s being taken to a forensic analysis team - I wouldn’t be surprised if Kichiko Iwatani’s fingerprints were found on this one as well.”

Matsuda had managed to convince the forensics team, when they had been there, to lay out supplies for an autopsy again. This time, however, they hadn’t done one before Light so he’ll be starting from scratch with this one.

As he pulls on the latex gloves and crouches over the body of Tohma Yanagi, he once again has the distinct feeling of not being qualified for this.

Yanagi is wearing a button up shirt, so it’s easy to remove it. This is very strange, he finds himself thinking. Like Honda, there had been strict orders to leave Yanagi as he had been found. It was strange performing an autopsy in a tent, but here, out in the open, with nothing containing the body is weird. At least in the tent it had been similar to a morgue, even without the autopsy table, it had even been temperature controlled, but here it’s hot and out in the open and there are people watching.

“Why am I the one doing this, again?” Light asks as he stares at the chunk of missing flesh in his side.

“Do you not wish to?” L asks.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that I’m not exactly qualified...”

“You’ve done several autopsies at this point, I trust that you can do this perfectly well. Besides, you know what to look for, the NPA’s forensic pathologists simply don’t.”

Light nods, grabs the needed tools and begins the autopsy.

\----

Again, there is nothing out of the ordinary for the situation. Yanagi had simply died of blood loss. He’d been knocked out, then cut until he bled dry.

Misa and Matsuda wave L and Light over when they’ve finished at the scene. Misa is apparently dressed in her costume - a dark hoodie and skinny jeans, very different clothes from what she normally wears. She seems happier than she did on the phone a week ago.

“Ah, nice to see you out, Ryuzaki!” Matsuda says.

L frowns and says, “I’m not here by choice - everyone else is busy and someone needs to keep an eye on Light.”

Misa crosses her arms and huffs. “Haven’t you cleared him yet?”

“No, not entirely.”

“Mostly, though?”

“Mostly.”

“Is - um, is Misora still...?” Matsuda asks nervously.

L nods. “Yes, she is.”

“So,” Light says, trying to change the subject, “what’s this show about, Misa?”

“Oh!” Misa clasps her hands together. She explains that she can’t say too much about it, but then goes on into fairly deep detail that Light barely even pays attention to and he definitely knows L isn’t listening to.

“Is that an animal shelter?” L asks, interrupted Misa’s excited chattering.

“Oh, yeah!” Matsuda says. “Misa Misa and I went to look at some of the animals they have, they’re really cute. There’s this litter of brown cats that look just like Kuroko!”

“You know, I think that might be the shelter Seiko and Ms Hoshi’s mural is raising money for,” Light says.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking,” L agrees. “Matsuda, does your sister volunteer there?”

“Uh, oh, well, I know that she volunteers at  _ a _ shelter, just not which one,” Matsuda says.

“I see, I’ll ask Watari, I believe he did send that money you suggested he send.”

“I suggested that you put a few dollars in their tip jar,” Light corrected. “Not that I’m complaining about your altruism. It is your money right? Not Watari’s?”

“Of course it’s my money.”

Light shakes his head and turns to Misa. “So how are things with Seiko? Did you work everything out?”

“Kind of? She’s a bit upset that she can’t see Rem. And she still wishes I’d told her about the Death Note and everything else. And I think she’s still mad about the Eye deal... Or, not mad, but she kind of acts like it? You know how she is.”

“Just... give her some time.”

“Yeah, I am. Tonight I’m planning on surprising her with some dinner in bed and a movie!”

“I’m sure she’ll love it.”

L clears his throat. “We should be getting back.” His gaze is shifting around rapidly and Light knows this must be stressful for him - L is exceptionally paranoid about people finding out his identity and they’ve now been outside around the same group of people for several hours.

Light sighs and nods.

\----

“Do I really have to?” Matsuda asks. “I mean, it’s my sister’s house!”

“Would you prefer it if Misora broke in?” L asks curiously.

Matsuda’s eyes go wide and he quickly shakes his head. “Oh - no, no I can do this.”

“Are you sure?” Light asks. “You might be biased to ignore certain things that might be in her house... Maybe Misora should go with you anyway?”

Matsuda shakes his head again.

“Alright,” L says, “so you will be infiltrating the house of Motoki and Tokihiko Hoshi and looking for anything suspicious. Particularly a Death Note, but also any signs of blood, knives that resemble these-” he displays photographs of the knives left at the scenes of Honda and Yanagai’s deaths “-any materials used to get rid of blood and potentially hand skin. If you find anything suspicious, take a picture of it with the phone Watari has supplied you with - it will automatically send any pictures directly to me.”

Matsuda nods.

He sneaking into the Hoshis’ house because, despite being the worst at surveillance on the team, he used to live with them, so he can navigate the house and if either of them come home -which is unlikely with Tokihiko’s job having him out of the country and Motoki being in the middle of a three hour long class- he’s much more likely to have a valid excuse than anyone else on the task force.

Matsuda leaves the headquarters with Ukita following so he can stake out the outside of the house and hopefully warn him if anyone is approaching.

Light and L, as they are yet again the only ones left in headquarters, wait impatiently.

Their time together is frequent and really should be awkward, but it just isn't. It's comfortable even after the hand holding and the repeated waking-up-in-each-others-arms that makes Light feel things he thinks are better left unexamined.

"How are your classes?" L asks and Light can tell it's just too feel the silence. He doesn't mind as long as he gets to hear L's voice.

"Good," he replies. "Still top of the class for all of them and I'm not even there."

L smirks but says nothing in response.

"I really thought medical school was supposed to be _ challenging _ ."

"Well... you  _ are _ just starting out, maybe it'll get harder."

"You don't believe that," Light says, he can tell by the shine in his eye and something in the way he says it.

"Not for you, no. I believe anything you do will be easy, including medical school. You know, I've seen a number of autopsies and yours are very good, especially for someone so insistent that he is unqualified.”

“Oh, thanks, Ryuzaki.”

“You know, when no one else is around, you can call me L.”

He isn’t looking at Light and Light is staring at him. That was unexpected.

Light shakes his head and smiles. “Alright, I will, L.”

L smiles as well.

_ “I’m in Motoki’s house,” _ Matsuda’s voice crackles through the speakers, breaking the comfortable yet tense air that had built up in the room.  _ “I guess I’ll just... look around now?” _

“Is there somewhere your sister has all to herself?” L asks. “Perhaps a room where she keeps her art supplies?”

_ “Oh, yeah! She has a crafts room! _ ”

Light and L wait in a tense silence, watching the screen where any photos Matsuda might take will show up. L’s grasp on his knees is tight, Light stares with bated breath.

And then-

_ “Oh  _ god _ , what the fuck is this? _ ” Matsuda chokes.

“Take a picture of it, Matsuda,” L says quickly.

_ “Right, hold on, just a second. _ ”

Just a few moments later, a picture pops up on the screen. It’s hand skin sewn together.


	9. confessions.

**chapter nine. confession.**

Matsuda finds nothing else, but he gets a lot of pictures of the hand skin.

“Does your sister have any background in anatomy?” L asks.

“Uh, not really,” Matsuda replies. “She had a bit of a phase when she was younger, but that was mostly for art purposes and she dabbled a bit in taxidermy, but I’m not sure if that’s relevant.”

Light turns to his computer and starts looking up taxidermy. “There  _ is _ skinning involved in taxidermy,” he says.

“This is certainly damning,” L says, tapping his fingers against his knee.

Matsuda doesn’t even bother arguing, he just looks dejected and sad and endlessly disappointed. It’s clear that Motoki Hoshi is Kira.

“Light, can you call Misa? I’d like to speak with Rem,” L says.

Light nods and invites Misa over.

\----

“Is this real?”

Rem looks over the ripped out page of the Death Note and looks back at L. “This is a rare piece of knowledge, but yes, it is real. Only a handful of shinigami know of it.”

Misa rises to the tips of her toes to get a look at the paper in Rem’s skeletal hands. She makes a disgusted face and says, “That’s  _ horrible _ . Who would do all that just to extend their life?”

“I imagine many people would,” L says. He takes the page back and sets it down on the desk. “Rem, would there be another shinigami with this Death Note?”

“Yes, there should be. Now that you’ve touched this page you should be able to see them.”

“And shinigami will typically stay near the human that has their Death Note, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Wait a minute, Seiko’s touched the page,” Light says, “and she sees Hoshi almost every day, doesn’t she?” Misa nods. “So shouldn’t she be seeing a shinigami?”

“It’s possible that they are keeping out of sight,” Rem says.

“Actually, according to Misora, she’s been sick for the last few days,” L says. “Ever since Tohma Yanagi’s death. She just went back to work today.”

“What, really?” Light asks.

“Oh, I think Seichi mentioned something about Ms Hoshi cancelling classes!” Misa says excitedly. “So it’s definitely her? Not me or Light?”

“You and Light are almost completely cleared of suspicion,” L confirms. “Now, we just need to confirm that Hoshi has a Death Note and then we can strike.”

“Surely the hand skin is enough evidence?” Light says.

“Yes, but we should confirm that she does indeed have a Death Note. It’s possible that Kira could be manipulating her, we shouldn’t be too hasty.”

“ _ How _ long has Misora been tailing Ms Hoshi?” Misa asks. “And she hasn’t found out if she has a Death Note or not?”

“Well, she can’t get access to the Hoshis household. Watari will be installing cameras tomorrow.”

Light’s phone buzzes. He goes to grab his at the same time Misa reaches for hers.

**Seiko -** there was this weird ass thing following ms hoshi today???

**Seiko -** let me tell you

**Seiko -** i am freaking the FUCK out

Misa and Light exchange a look and Misa immediately goes to type a response. L says, “What is it?”

“Seiko apparently saw something following Hoshi today.”

“What type of thing?”

“I’m asking her that right now,” Misa says.

Light’s phone buzzes.

**Misa -** what kind of thing???

**Seiko -** i dont know??? it was like big and leathery and laughed a lot???

“Rem do you know any shinigami that are ‘big and leathery and laughs a lot?’” Light asks.

“Yes, but that could describe a few shinigami.”

**Seiko -** is this one of those shinigami things??

**Seiko -** ms hoshi is a suspect right?

**Light -** Yeah, she is.

**Seiko -** so is this like proving it??? 

**Light -** Maybe.

“Misa, do you think you’ll be able to go down to To-Oh today?” Light asks.

Misa scrolls through her phone a bit before nodding. “Yep, everything looks clear! Should Matsu go with me?”

“Yes, he should,” L says. “You should go find him and get on the move.”

“Can I touch the Death Note page?” she asks. “So I can be on the lookout for a shinigami.”

L obliges and lets her briefly touch the page before she skips away on the hunt for Matsuda.

**Seiko -** so IS it a shinigami???

**Light -** Maybe. Misa is going down there with Matsuda to see if she has a Death Note.

**Sayu -** WHAT are you talking about?

**Light -** Shit.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” L asks urgently.

“Nothing, it’s just that Seiko, Misa and I were talking in our group chat, which  _ also _ includes Sayu. So she just saw us talking about shinigami and the Death Note.”

“I see... that certainly is an issue.”

**Seiko -** so uh

**Seiko -** you know in men in black when they use the flashy thing and you cant remember anything? lets pretend i just did that

Light groans loudly.

**Sayu -** ummmm

**Sayu -** thats not how things work?

**Light -** Sayu, it’s just something to do with the case, don’t worry about it.

**Sayu -** i see...

Misa and Matsuda say their loud goodbye and stride out the front doors. Light sighs and puts his phone away. He knows that Sayu is going to be a pain in  _ someone’s _ ass and he certainly hopes it’s Soichiro’s and not his.

“So,” he says.

“So,” L echoes when Light doesn’t continue.

“Now we’re just waiting.” Light has no idea what he’s doing or where he’s going with this.

“Again.” L is speaking into his knees as he fidgets with the bottom of his jeans. Light watches his hands, his fingers moving at random as he folds and unfolds and twists at his pants.

Light can’t help thinking about holding his hand and the increasing number of mornings he’s woken up with L curled into his side. They never talk about it, never mention it, never acknowledge it and Light usually doesn’t think about it. It seems almost normal, but now, for some reason, Light can’t stop thinking about it. He wants to hold L; embrace him and run his hand through his hair.

He presses his eyes closed and mentally shakes himself. Now is not the time.

Or maybe it is?

They’re just waiting to hear back from Misa, and that could take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour depending on how hard it is to find Hoshi. He can let his mind wander.

“Light,” L says, a smirk playing at his lips, “you’re staring.”

Light pulls himself out of his thoughts to say, “You’re not exactly one to talk, Ryuzaki.”

“L,” he corrects.

“L.”

He pulls his hands up to his mouth and chews at his nails. “What are you thinking about?”

Light shrugs. “Nothing in particular.”

“Really? That seems unusual for you. You aren’t the type that’s too into your own head...”

“Well, it happens.”

L’s fingers twitch.

“You seem like you have something on your mind, L,” Light says.

L sighs. “I suppose.”

“What is it?”

“You,” he says. It’s blunt, it’s short and it completely takes Light off guard. He should stop being so surprised by L’s lack of finesse. He seems to realize the implication of his words when Light doesn’t respond and starts going pink in the face.

“Really?” Light asks, attempting to laugh to lighten the mood but really only sounding a bit nervous. “What sorts of things about me are you thinking about?”

“Uh...” L pushes his face into his knees. “Nothing in particular.”

Light isn’t sure when it happened, but their chairs are closer to each other than a few moments ago. If he wanted to, he could reach out and grab L’s hands. And he does. He pulls L’s hands away from his face and holds them between them.

“You know, you shouldn’t chew at your nails.” 

_ Jesus christ, he’s being an idiot _ .  _ What kind of line is that? _

“It actually helps me think,” L replies.

“And what do you have to think about right now?”

L frowns. “There’s always a lot to think about.”

Light sighs. "Just... take a moment not to, okay? We're almost done here, we just need to wait for a little bit and in that time, just relax."

"Relax..."

"Yes, L, relax."

L’s hands are limp in Light’s and he seems completely clueless as to what to do. Light pulls L just a bit closer. He flushes, unsure of what he’s doing. L’s cheeks had just gone back to their usual colour and have tinged pink yet again.

“Light,” L says, seemingly only saying his name for the sake of filling the air with something other than the confusingly comfortable uncomfortable silence.

“L.”

L’s tongue darts out to lick his chapped lips. “What’s - are we - what are we doing?”

“What do you think we should be doing?” Light asks.

“I...” L pauses. His fingers twitch in Light’s grasp. He flushes even darker as he says, “Can we - can I kiss you?”

Light grins and pulls L forward. For a moment, L’s eyes go wide in shock, but then their lips touch and the kiss is gentle and sweet. L’s lips are dry and cracked and he tastes like cherries and sweets and Light wouldn’t change it for anything.

They pull away, both faces extremely red. Light is staring at L with a wide smile and L seems fully unsure of what to do with himself. His eyes are darting all over the place and he’s fidgeting restlessly.

“Was that good?” Light asks.

L looks at him and nods. He’s smiling, a small, gentle smile and it’s beautiful. “Light, I hope you know that when this case is done, I won’t be staying here.”

“But we can keep in touch, right?” Light says. “We can text and call and video chat, you know.”

L nods. “Yes, we can do that.”

“And hey, maybe when I’m done with school I could be your personal forensic pathologist. You never know when you might need an autopsy done.”

“That is true. You’re already more competent than some of the pathologists I’ve had to deal with.”

Light’s phone buzzes.

**Misa -** i cant see her lifespan!!!

**Misa -** ms hoshi has a death note!!!

Light relays the information to L and he nods. 

“Good, we’ll go in and bring her into custody when she returns home.” He pulls out his phone. “Misora? Yes, we have confirmation of Hoshi owning a Death Note. Call me the minute she returns home, we’ll move in then.”

\----

When Matsuda returns, the upset and dejection radiating from him is palpable. L gives him the afternoon off and he retreats to his room. He calls everyone but Misora back to prepare for the arrest. The plan is for Mogi, Soichiro, Aizawa and Ukita to wear helmets to mask their faces and then go in to restrain her. Ukita and Aizawa will search the house for the Death Note if she doesn’t have it on her person.

L and Light sit in silence as they wait. They’re tense, Light has gone completely still and L can’t stop fidgeting.

_ “We’ve apprehended her _ ,” comes Soichiro’s voice. Light can hear yelling in the background. 

“Does she have the Death Note on her?” L asks.

_ “She’s denying it, but Aizawa is searching her bag - ah, he found it!” _

“Good, bring Hoshi and the notebook back immediately.”

_ “On it.” _

\----

Motoki Hoshi is detained in the cells above the morgue. Her arms and legs are tied up, a blindfold is wrapped around her head and L is asking her questions through a microphone and a voice modifier. A giant, dark shinigami hovers behind her.

The only thing that  _ really  _ interests Light with the questions is  _ why brown cats? _ Well, it turns out that Seiko had told her about Kuroko and decided it could be something to direct suspicions on someone else.

Once he hears the explanation for that, Light starts examining the sewn together hand skin that Ukita picked up. It certainly is a... creative way to plant evidence and get around leaving your own fingerprints - it seems that the skin had been used as gloves. It’s truly morbid but Light can’t help being impressed by the preservation of the skin, the technique gone into putting the skin back together, the durability. He has to admit that Hoshi is skilled.

“God, that’s disgusting,” Misora says when Light explains this to her. “Still, it  _ is _ creative.”

“Yeah, it’s impressive,” Light says.

Misora nods. “We should tell Ryuzaki about this.” She turns without waiting for a response, so Light pulls his gloves off, tosses them in the trash can and rushes after her.

“How’d the interrogation go?” Misora asks when he and Misora get to the main room.

“She confessed,” Soichiro says. “What about those hands? Are they Kichiko Iwatani’s?”

Light nods. “There are skin flakes inside them, it appears that Hoshi had been using them as gloves. It seems her dabbling in taxidermy paid off, they’re incredibly durable and haven’t rotted at all.”

“Interesting,” L says.

“Has someone told Matsuda about this?” Light asks.

Aizawa shakes his head. “I’ll go tell him.”

He heads for the elevator.

\----

That night, Light and L curl up into each other, L’s head under Light’s chin and Light runs his fingers through that soft, soft hair. 

“How much longer do you think you’ll be here?” he asks.

“Probably not long. But I’ll keep in touch. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to visit. I only rarely need to go to where the cases I’m working on are.”

“Could you? But what about - I mean, my parents don’t even know-”

“If you don’t want them to know yet, then it’s just me visiting my friend. And keeping an eye on someone I might want to work with in the future. I want to make sure you’re still at the top of your classes. Not that I doubt your ability to easily pass through one of the country’s top medical schools...”

Light smiles and says, “Good plan. You know, I’m thinking about graduating early - I’ve got it all planned out. It shouldn’t be too difficult, I just need to take a few summer classes.”

“How early would you graduate with this plan?”

“A year and a half.”

\----

L is there for Light’s graduation. They’ve already told Light’s family about their relationship at this point and they’ve already decided that L will be relocating his home base to Japan, to a house he and Light can share together. Sayu and Sachiko were very excited about the whole prospect, but Soichiro took some time to get used to it. Eventually, he came around.

When Seiko and Misa found out about the relationship -which happened when Seiko walked into Light’s room when he and L had started kissing in the middle of a romcom L had insisted on them watching- they were wholly unsurprised. Misa laughed a lot and Seiko’s teasing was relentless.

L and Light quickly settle into their new house. They even get a dog. L had suggested a cat, Light had refused, claiming that going and seeing Kuroko at Misa and Seiko’s place was enough cat for him, so they ended up getting a great big leonberger because Light had insisted on a large animal and L had insisted on a soft one. They named her Michika - well, Sayu named her Michika and L and Light thought it fit her.

Light was sure, for the first time in his life, that he wouldn’t change anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, as I posted this I started to notice several plot holes (it's what happens when you go into this only knowing who did it and not really planning, I guess) and the like and not everything gets explained, but I hope it was still a fun read! Ask away about anything that you want to know about or get clarified! 
> 
> I will go ahead and say that Hoshi’s motivation is that she wants to make the world a better place, she sees how Matsuda’s job affects him and his coworkers and she genuinely wants to make it easier at the start of her being Kira, but then the power goes to her head. The praise gets to her head and she develops a god complex, and when Ryuk tells her about the method to increase her lifespan she thinks that that’s a really good idea because she figures ‘hey what’s one or two people sacrificed for the good of humanity.’
> 
> Oh! And I’m thinking about maybe doing some one shots in this universe? Maybe one about Hoshi finding the death note and going into her motivations for using it? Also maybe one where Seiko meets Rem since she’s hanging around.. Just vibin.. Oh! And one about Sayu bugging Light for details about shinigami ofc


End file.
